UK goes eight days without coal-generated power

The record for the longest period during which we manged without using coal to generate electricity which was set over Easter this year has already been smashed. Britain went a record eight days to yesterday without using coal to generate power. The government's action on the environment through  reforms and investment continue to break records – making sure we leave our planet in a better state for the next generation.

Key facts: 
  • The UK has just managed for over a week without using coal to generate electricity  for the first time since the industrial revolution. 
  • This year we’ve already reached the major milestone of 1,000 hours without using coal to power our homes and industry. 
  • Last year renewables generated a record amount of electricity, generating 37.1 per cent of the UK’s electricity in 2018 Q4, up from 6.1 per cent in 2010. 

Why this matters: 

We’re closing in on the target of phasing out coal entirely from our power system by 2025 as Britain's renewable sector goes from strength to strength and we aim to become the first major economy to legislate for net zero emissions.

It is a good thing that young people are aware of the threats to our environment and their future and that they are taking action to campaign for a cleaner world. But anyone, whether they are sixteen or sixty, who tells you that Britain is not already taking major strides towards reducing pollution is misinformed.

Comments

Anonymous said…
How much coal was burnt in power stations in those 8 days?
11:14 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
I have not been able to discover the answer to that question.

To read the press reports you would imagine that the answer was zero, though I have not seen that confirmed. You may note that I was very careful to qualify the words I used in the post.

But you can bet they will have burned a lot less coal than would have been used if they were generating power.
11:22 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more