The United Kingdom's last operational coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, has officially ceased operations, marking the nation's complete transition away from coal-powered electricity generation. The closure of the 2-gigawatt (GW) plant took place on Monday, 30th September, making the UK the first G7 country to entirely eliminate coal power after more than a century of reliance on the fossil fuel.
Since it began operations in 1967, Ratcliffe-on-Soar received around 141,768 coal deliveries by rail, with each train carrying up to 15,000 tonnes of coal. Located just nine miles from Nottingham, the station supplied electricity to the national grid for 57 years. Initially commissioned by the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1968, the plant burned more than five million tonnes of coal annually, mostly sourced from South Nottinghamshire mines until they closed. At full capacity, it generated enough electricity to power over two million homes across the East Midlands.
The closure is in line with the UK Government’s 2015 commitment to phase out all coal-fired power stations by 2025, a target later brought forward to 2024. In the early 20th century, coal accounted for over 95% of the UK’s electricity generation; by 2022, this had dropped to just 1%.
Minister for Energy Michael Shanks commented, “Closure at Ratcliffe marks the end of an era and coal workers can be rightly proud of their work powering our country for over 140 years. We owe generations a debt of gratitude as a country. The era of coal might be ending, but a new age of good energy jobs for our country is just beginning.
"The Government’s clean energy superpower mission is about creating good jobs in wind power and new technologies like carbon capture and storage. That work is helping boost our energy security and independence, protecting families from international hikes in the price of fossil fuels and with it, creating jobs and tackling climate change.”
Decommissioning of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant will begin this week, with the demolition of its eight 374-foot cooling towers expected to follow soon.
The UK’s phase-out of coal power is part of a wider global shift. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, global planned coal capacity has dropped by 70%, and the number of countries planning new coal plants has halved from 65 to 33. This shift has largely been driven by the plummeting cost of renewable energy, which is now cheaper than coal in most markets. Solar costs have fallen by 90% since 2015, while the cost of offshore wind in the UK has dropped by 70%. Both the European Commission and the G7 have called for no new coal projects worldwide.
Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), highlighted “This is a British success story overseen by successive governments of different stripes. There were those who warned of blackouts as coal disappeared from the power system, but their predictions of doom have been proven wrong again and again.
“We reached a record proportion of renewable generation in quarter two of this year, showing that the transition is well and truly underway. The coal phase-out is a reminder that for all the country’s current challenges, we can show leadership to the world and can cut not only our own domestic emissions, but by kickstarting industries like offshore wind help to cut carbon right around the world. The example the UK sets matters.”
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