National Grid confirms first week of coal-free electricity since 1882

According to the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) the milestone was reached at 13.24 on Wednesday 8^th May (the last coal generator came off the system exactly a week earlier at 13:24hrs on Wednesday 1^st May)

This marks the first time since the launch of the UK’s first public coal power station in 1882  (see archive box-out below) that coal has been absent from the energy mix for an entire week.

Coal dominated UK electricity production for much of the 20^th century. Indeed, until 1990 it was still responsible for 67 per cent of the UK’s total, But the so-called dash-for-gas, and the more recent emergence of renewable generating capacity has seen coal-use fall dramatically.

According to BEIS figures, in 2017 coal accounted for 4.8 per cent of UK primary energy demand.

The latest news, which has been hailed as a major step towards completely phasing out coal by 2025, builds on a number of recent milestones: in May 2016, solar power produced more electricity than coal for the first time, producing 1.33TWh compared to 0.9TWh from coal, whilst more recently (21 April 2017) had its first coal-free generation day since Victorian times.