Great Britain is the first western industrial country to stop generating electricity from coal. The last coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, southwest of Nottingham, will operate for the last time on Monday. After more than 140 years, Great Britain is the first country in the G7 group to say goodbye to coal, as reported by the Times newspaper, among others.

The conservative government of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought forward the coal phase-out by another year in June 2021. In the future, only clean electricity will be used.

The coal workers can be proud that they have powered the country for more than 140 years, said Energy State Secretary Michael Shanks from the Social Democratic Labor Party, which has been in government since the beginning of July. “The coal era may be ending, but a new era of good jobs in the energy sector is just beginning for our country.” This included wind power and new technologies such as CO2 capture and storage. Britain should become “a clean energy superpower”.

Nuclear energy helps with an earlier coal phase-out

Just over 100 years ago, almost all electricity in Great Britain was generated by burning coal. The country is considered the birthplace of coal-fired power generation. Today, coal hardly plays a role anymore. In 2023, the share of the energy mix was 1.3 percent. Great Britain’s significantly earlier coal phase-out compared to Germany is also possible because the country continues to rely on nuclear power to generate energy. In Germany, the coal phase-out has been agreed for 2038. The traffic light had decided to “ideally” bring the date forward to 2030.

On Monday, a hard coal-fired power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia was also shut down as planned – namely the Heyden power plant in Petershagen. With an output of 875 megawatts, it was one of the most powerful power plants in Germany, according to the operating company Uniper.

“We are far ahead when it comes to coal”

In Great Britain, since the first coal-fired power station opened in 1882, a total of 4.6 billion tons of coal have been burned and 10.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) have been emitted, according to the climate portal Carbon Brief – more than most countries have ever produced from all sources .

“We are way ahead on coal,” British government climate advisor Chris Stark told the Times. “Far ahead of other G7 economies.” The head of power plant operator Uniper, Michael Lewis, told the paper that the end of Ratcliffe was “an enormously big deal – locally, nationally, internationally”. The plant was opened in 1968. In June a train brought the last delivery of 1,650 tons of coal.

Although the global community has agreed to move away from coal in favor of the climate, it continues to play a major role so far. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), coal use rose to a record high last year – driven in particular by high demand in China and India.