In the Corona, with the crisis decreased the demand for electricity by about a fifth, and the last three remaining coal power plants in the UK are switched off since April. The UK has set a new record: Since now two months, the share of Coal in electricity production is at zero percent. About a third of the electricity generation comes from Gas power plants, strongly, the share of wind power parks is mainly grown but. He was last seen at about a quarter.
Philip Plickert
economic correspondent based in London.
F. A. Z.
The share of coal-fired power generation in the UK, even before the Corona-recession, only minimal, he wavered in the four quarters of last year, according to the regulator Ofgem between 0.4 and 2.8 percent. 2016 were first shut down all coal – fired power plants in Britain temporarily short-term from the energy companies-because the operation was worth it. It was the first Time since the establishment of a public power supply in the year 1892, that a Britain without coal-fired power generation.
five years ago, coal’s share of power supply was 25 per cent. Since then, he has fallen dramatically. An important reason for this is the introduction of a surcharge for the CO2-emissions, the so – called “Carbon Price Support”, which was raised in April 2015 to £ 18 per ton of CO2-was not so much the power stations will have to pay in addition to the price of EU emission allowances.
as a result, the operation of coal-fired power plants was economically less portable, more and more were shut down. They were replaced for the most part, especially through gas-fired power plants, which is only about half as much CO2 to emit. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the Gas share was, according to Ofgem at 33 percent.
15 nuclear power reactors
Recently, the coal-fired power plants Aberthaw B in South Wales and Fiddler’s Ferry in Cheshire in March 2020 was abandoned. Only three coal-fired power plants to the grid in the whole of the United Kingdom, Selby, Ratcliffe and West Burton, as well as one in Northern Ireland.
Since 9. April, the British coal-fired power plants are still, according to the trade page Carbon letter completely. Carbon letter stresses that, since the Corona-crisis of electricity from renewable energy sources, with 37 percent of electricity production from fossil fuels, the sun, mainly Gas.
Continuously of the importance of wind power parks in Britain has grown, with their share of the power supply depending on the Season and the weather varies. By the end of 2019, he was, according to Ofgem, just under 20 percent of the power supply. Britain has now been installed globally, the biggest wind power capacity in wind parks in the sea. 120 kilometers off the coast of Yorkshire, the Hornsea Project is currently the largest wind Farm in the world; last spring, a first part has already begun with the production of electricity. If Hornsea Two is completed according to the Plan, in 2022, would it produce enough electricity for 1.3 million households, promises to be the developer Orsted, an energy company from Denmark.
