Britain hits milestone with coal-free month
National Grid ESO say Great Britain has gone a whole month without using coal power.
National Grid ESO say Great Britain has gone a whole month without using coal power.
Last week, National Grid ESO announced that Britain has hit a milestone of going the longest period of time without coal power generation.
As of 10 May, GB broke another record, going a whole month without using coal power.
Another milestone for Britain! �� It's now a #CoalFreeMonth of #electricity generation in this country as of 12am on #SundayMorning. 30 days, 7 hours and 36 minutes (727+hrs) – and counting. Find out more about our #zerocarbon ambitions for GB's electricity system �� pic.twitter.com/KCohJNlFm6
— National Grid ESO (@ng_eso) May 10, 2020
In recent years, Britain has slowly made the transition away from coal. In May 2019, there was a 2-week period where there was coal free operation of Great Britain’s electricity system.
2020 has seen GB break even more records and last month, it was revealed that it had broken the record for the largest amount of solar generation in one day.
Naional Grid anticipates renewables will contribute a higher proportion than ever before this year and that 2020 will most likely be the lowest carbon electricity generation year in history.
The recent low demand for energy has been linked to the coronavirus pandemic, with lockdown dramatically reducing the use of fossil fuel based generation.
As of today (12 May), time without using coal power generation has hit 32 days. This trend is likely to continue as we begin the next phase of lockdown.
Roisin Quinn, Head of National Control and Chief Engineer at National Grid ESO, will be joining our 'Grid Flexibility' Webinar on 2 June 2020 at 4PM BST to discuss how we can make our grids more flexible to cope with the net-zero transition. Register now.
