After 142 years of relying on coal for electricity generation, the UK is ending its coal power production. The country’s last coal power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, permanently ceased its operations on Monday after running since 1967. This marks a vital milestone in the UK’s beliefs to cut its contribution to climate change.
Minister for Energy Michael Shanks stated that “We owe generations a debt of gratitude as a country.” The UK was the birthplace of coal power, and on Monday, it became the first major economy to give it up.
“It’s a really remarkable day because Britain, after all, built her whole strength on coal, that is the industrial revolution,” said Lord Deben – the longest-serving environment secretary. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.
The first coal-fired power station worldwide, the Holborn Viaduct power station, was built in 1882 in London by the inventor Thomas Edison – providing light to the streets of the capital. From that point through the first half of the twentieth century, coal provided almost all of the UK’s electricity, powering homes and companies
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