Climate Change was in all our minds just a few months ago. Since then, CV19 has taken over. But among all the bad news about health and the economy, there is some good news for the Earth. Coronavirus has not been the only reason — but it has been one part of the story.
Britain passed a significant landmark at midnight on Wednesday. We went two full months without burning coal to generate power. Just a decade ago, about 40% of the country’s electricity came from coal. Today Britain is a world leader in offshore wind turbines helped by our shallow seas and steady winds.
When Britain went into lockdown, electricity demand plummeted; the National Grid responded by taking power plants off the network. The four remaining coal-fired plants were shut down.
The last coal generator came off the system at midnight on 9 April. No coal has been burnt for electricity since that date. The current coal-free period smashes the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes which was set in June last year!