Friday 13 July 2018

UK hits milestone of 1,000 coal-free hours

The UK has gone a thousand hours without needing coal generation so far this year.

That's according to new figures released by MyGridGB, which show the country hit the milestone early this morning.

The data shows the amount of coal-free time in 2018 has already eclipsed the figures from 2017 and 2016, in which there were only 624 and 210 coal-free hours respectively.

In 2012, coal supplied around 40% of the country's electricity – this year it has provided less than 6%, illustrating the rapid decline of the polluting fuel source.

A spokesperson at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "The UK leads the world in tackling climate change and this shows the time of unabated coal fired electricity is being ended by a cleaner, greener future increasingly powered by renewable energy."

The UK went without coal for three days in a row for the first time earlier this year.