The United Kingdom spends 1,000 hours without coal as energy transfer accelerates

Britain has been fueled for more than a thousand hours without coal this year, in a new phase highlighting the accelerating decline in pollutant fuel.

The last eight coal plants in the United Kingdom have had a brief recovery. "The price of gas rose earlier this year, causing coal firing.

However, the blip has turned ephemeral and immaterial, figures compiled by the show MyGridGB.The country has crossed the threshold of 1,000 hours without coal in the early morning friday.

The pace of the disappearance of the coal industry accelerates. In 2017, there were 624 hours without coal compared to 210 hours in 2016.

Andrew Crossland, an energy expert who runs the MyGridGB website, said: "In 2018, Britain saved" During the rest of the year, Britain 's renewable energy sector has provided record amounts of electricity, with more than 7.4% of solar energy over the last four years weeks. "

In 2012, she provided two-fifths of electricity – this year, up to Now it has provided less than 6%.

The decline will intensify in the second half of this year, with the closure scheduled for September After the shutdown of Eggborough and Kilroot production, there will remain six coal-fired power plants [19659003] For the first time since the industrial revolution, the United Kingdom spent a day without coal last year, followed this year by three days in a row. These figures contrast with those of a record series for renewable energy sources, including wind, solar and biombad.

Renewable energies provided 30.1% of electricity during the first three months of the year.

Higher wind speeds than last year helped, but new wind turbines online also played a big role. Electricity generation at offshore wind farms increased by 53%.

The last sunny weeks have also created a series of solar disks. The most recent was a new peak for solar production over a month, with 1.94 terawatt hours of energy produced between June 10 and July 9, beating the previous record of 1.77 TWh

Alastair Buckley , solar expert at the University of Sheffield, said: "Part of this increase is due to the installation of more solar panels since 2017 but most of the increase is climatic, and the Summer 2018 being the fifth sunniest ever recorded. "

"These figures underscore the growing importance of solar."

Ministers committed to complete phase-out of coal by 2025, but output will decline well in advance.

Own projections from the government predict the amount of electricity produced by coal.Plants between 2019 and 2025 are less than what was produced in 2015 alone, Friends of the Earth pointed out.

Cottam in Nottinghamshire and Fiddler & Ferry in Cheshire are considered by observers as the next Drax in Yorkshire and Ratcliffe in Nottinghamshire are likely to be the last to close due to adverse economic conditions brought about by the reduction of the carbon tax and United Kingdom's Gas Price Decline

According to a scenario presented by National Grid this week, renewable energies are expected to rise sharply about 29% of electricity production last year to 75% by 2030.

This article was first published in the Guardian [19659003] BusinessGreen fact part of the Guardian Environment Network