The UK’s remaining coal-fired power plants made their lowest ever contribution to Britain’s electricity grid in 135 years last month, and could fall further in August.
The proportion of coal-fired generation in the power mix halved from last summer to an average of just 2pc of the total power generated over the month, analysts at Aurora Research have found.
The researchers added that this trend is continuing and could reach a lower average in August. The Oxford-based centre outlined the precipitous fall of coal-fired power in fresh data which shows it has fallen from 22pc in July 2015 to 4pc in the same month last year. In 2016 the high-carbon energy source made up 9pc of electricity generation on average, down heavily from an average of 23pc across 2015.
Richard Howard, Aurora Energy’s head of research said the July average of 2pc is sharply down from over 50pc as recently as November 2012.
“The decline in coal in recent years is partly as a result of higher carbon prices, and partly the growth in renewables. In August coal load factors have been even lower than in July and the trend is continuing,” he added.
For the rest of this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/08/25/uk-coal-power-peters-lowest-135-years/