UK uses no coal power for three days in a row, smashing record broken last week

[Morgen]

The UK has been powered without coal for three days in a row, setting a new record and underlining the polluting fuel’s rapid decline.

Coal has historically been at the cornerstone of the UK’s electricity mix, but last year saw the first 24-hour period that the the country ran without the fuel since the 19th century.

New records were broken last week when zero power came from coal for nearly 55 consecutive hours.

That milestone in turn was smashed on Monday afternoon and the UK passed the 72-hour mark at 10am on Tuesday. The coal-free run came to an end after 76 hours.
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Two coal plant owners have said they will shut this year, which will leave the UK with six coal power stations including Drax, which has hinted it will cease burning coal before the 2025 target.
UK runs without coal power for three days in a row

[SIRIUS]

Hope it's just the beginning

[Somepotato]

meanwhile in Australia, bitcoin coal power plants

[ViralHatred]

I hope it's not.

Our Tory government has done [i]nothing[/i] to invest in future sustainable energy generation and to shut down plants without creating new ways to generate that grid load, we cannot rely solely on wind generation for base load, especially with the fact our British weather is becoming more turbulent.

What will happen is that we'll end up with a need to reactivate or build more gas fired power plants because the Tories won't push for nuclear, and the plans that were enacted under labour and supported by the coalition to build 8-10 new plants have since collapsed. Hinkley Point C isn't due to start construction until 2019 and generation until 2025 and that's assuming that EDF don't mothball it.So in short we'll have to buy gas from other countries to power our power plants because we already have a gas production shortfall. And since energy companies are now no longer allowed to "backcharge" consumers for increases in fuel prices/demand like they were previously, they'll likely put energy prices up across the board.

Yes coal is bad. But coal is better than having no power at all.

[PyroCF]

We still use combined gas for most of our power which can cover coal.

Also this is a nice site to track grid sources:

http://grid.iamkate.com/

[Dark Raven]

Good. The only place where coal should be used is in BBQ.

[SIRIUS]

When sustainable power shows that it works, I'd when project invest in it

[Anteep]

id just like to note that Drax, owner of one of the 6-to-be remaining power stations, are already investing heavily into biomass power generation.

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