https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/01/german-utilities-firm-rwe-to-close-its-last-uk-coal-plant-in-2020
[links in online article]
German utilities firm RWE to close its last UK coal plant in 2020
Decision will leave only four remaining coal plants powering British homes
Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent
Thu 1 Aug 2019
The German utility giant RWE will close its last UK coal plant after the
coming winter, leaving only four remaining coal plants powering British
homes.
RWE will close the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales at the end of
March 2020 after half a century generating electricity from coal.
The energy company, which runs one of the largest portfolios of gas
power plants, said it had been clear for some time that the UK was a
challenging market for coal generators.
The UK used coal for less than 5% of its electricity last year, and went
without coal-generated power altogether for over a week earlier this
year, which was the longest coal-free period since the Industrial
Revolution.
Coal has been driven out of the electricity system due to rising taxes
on carbon emissions, and will be banned by the government from 2025 to
help the UK meet its climate targets.
The shutdown of Aberthaw B comes after SSE said in June it would close
the Fiddler’s Ferry coal plant near Warrington in Cheshire by the end of
March 2020 because it cannot compete with the economics of gas and
renewable energy.
EDF Energy said in February that it would shutter the Cottam coal plant
in September.
The string of shutdowns means that by next spring just four coal plants
will remain in the UK: the West Burton A and Ratcliffe-on-Soar plants in
Nottinghamshire, Kilroot in Northern Ireland and two generation units at
the Drax site in North Yorkshire, which are earmarked for conversion to
burn gas.
Roger Miesen, the chief executive of RWE’s generation business, said:
“This is a difficult time for everyone at Aberthaw power station.
However, market conditions made this decision necessary.”
He added the company would complete a consultation process with the 170
people directly employed by the plant in the coming months. The Unite
trade union called for an urgent meeting with the company to explain why
the plant will close earlier than the expected 2021 shutdown.
“The reasons given for the closure are economic – the plant has rarely
run over the last few months,” said Kelvin Mawer, a regional officer at
Unite. “However, the decision to close has come a lot earlier than
expected.”
Tom Glover, RWE’s UK country chair, said: “For nearly 50 years the plant
has played an invaluable role in helping to secure the energy supplies
across the UK electricity system and we are very proud of its
flexibility and resilience.”
The decline of coal in the UK’s energy mix has left space for the growth
of renewable energy sources, which generated a third of all electricity
used last year.
The government’s official annual energy report revealed that low-carbon
electricity – which includes nuclear power and renewables – was used to
generate more than half of the electricity used in the UK for the first
time last year.
Doug Parr, the chief scientist and policy director at Greenpeace UK,
said the shutdown of Aberthaw should encourage more government support
for renewables to help meet the UK’s energy needs.
Greenpeace has often criticised the government for blocking onshore
windfarms from competing for government subsidies against other energy
technologies after the Conservative manifesto ruled out more windfarms
for England.
Parr said ministers should “take the brakes off wind and solar power,
which will be doing all the heavy lifting in the job of getting the UK
to a clean power system”.
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