The United Kingdom is the first G7 country to shut down coal plants

The last coal-fired power station in the United Kingdom will close on Monday (30), marking the end of electricity generation using the fuel, a first for a member of the G7, the world’s most developed group of nations. .

The closure of the facility, which opened in 1967 and employs 350 people, is a landmark step in Britain’s ambitious plan to completely decarbonise its electricity by 2030 and then achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The United Kingdom is the first G7 member state to take this step. Italy in 2025, France in 2027, Canada in 2030 and Germany, Japan and the US in 2038 have not set a date.

The closure “marks the end of an era” but ushers in “a new one”, which will favor the creation of new jobs in the energy sector, said the British government, which recently launched a renewable energy plan.

The plant, located in Radcliffe-on-Sore, between the cities of Derby and Nottingham in central England, is expected to be completely decommissioned “by the end of the decade”, said its owner, the German energy company Univer. Creation of an on-site “Carbon-Free Energy and Technology Centre”.

Coal contributed significantly to England’s economic growth between the 19th century and the 1990s.

This highly polluting energy generated 70% of electricity in the 1980s, 38% in 2013, 5% in 2018 and 1% last year.

To stop this dependency, Britons are starting to opt for natural gas, a fossil energy shown to be less polluting and which will be used to generate a third of the UK’s electricity by 2023.

– “In the history books” –

“(Coal’s) place is now in the history books. The priority now is to capture gas, the UK’s biggest renewable energy potential soon,” says Friends of the Earth’s Tony Bosworth.

“The UK has set an example for the rest of the world to follow,” says Doug Barr of Greenpeace UK.

As part of its renewable energy plan, London wants to create a public company called Great British Energy to invest in floating wind, tidal or nuclear power, above all in Aberdeen, in the east of Scotland.

In a similar vein, the United Kingdom recently nationalized for 630 million pounds (R$4.7 billion at current prices) the operator of the British electricity grid ESO, which is responsible for regulating the balance between supply and demand for electricity to connect the “new standard”. Production Plans” more effectively.

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