After years and years of media reports that coal is having a comeback in the UK the last coal plant will go offline in just 2 weeks.
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After years and years of media reports that coal is having a comeback in the UK the last coal plant will go offline in just 2 weeks.
Coal in the UK is no more.
Credit for graph to @ketan
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@janrosenow how did they get rid of it so quickly while Germany is taking until 2038 or something?
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@grob @janrosenow Looks like the initial reduction was due to replacing it with nuclear and methane (“natural” gas) in the 1970s, and since 1995 it has been driven by wind power and other renewables.
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@bhawthorne
Probably also that most of UK's domestic coal production has been exhausted, and it's not cost effective to import it when they can get North Sea or Russian gas.
@grob @janrosenow -
Brian Hawthornereplied to Brian Hawthorne last edited by
@grob @janrosenow Comparing that with the energy mix in Germany, it looks like the UK had access to more and cheaper dirty methane (AKA “natural gas”) from their North Sea wells and were able to replace coal with that more quickly than Germany. Those wells, by the way, are leaking tonnes of methane into the atmosphere.
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@JessTheUnstill @bhawthorne @grob @janrosenow
UK coal reserves are substantial, but since Thatcher shut the deep pits in the 1980's the UK has relied on imported coal and some opencast mining. -
@bhawthorne @janrosenow wow, thanks for the graphs! I wasn't aware for what a long time the coal reduction has been going on. Thinking about it, the UK has some very good offshore wind as well. In Germany everyone's got their knickers in a twist because they don't want onshore wind in their backyard, which cost insane amounts of time in legislation and courts. Coastal areas are scarce though.
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Even if a place has reserves, if it's not cost effective to get them out (whether due to technical challenges or regulatory/ecological costs), the reserves are functionally exhausted until/unless prices rise to the point they become economical again.
@BrianSmith950
@bhawthorne @grob @janrosenow -
Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:replied to Jan Rosenow last edited by [email protected]
@janrosenow @ketan
"Winter is making a comeback!" -
Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:replied to Jess👾 last edited by
@JessTheUnstill @BrianSmith950 @bhawthorne @grob @janrosenow
...which they probably won't, seeing as coal has been going downhill for decades now, peeking in the 60s and 70s. It's an obsolete power source, beaten by the fact that pretty much everything else is more efficient on every level. -
Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:replied to grob 🇺🇦 last edited by
@grob @bhawthorne @janrosenow
Germany really screwed itself over by getting rid of all those nuclear plants: we really needed to focus on the immediate issue of fossil fuel burning, not the scare tactics the fossil fuel industry has been using against nuclear.