The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has confirmed how it intends to implement the phase-out of coal power generation in the UK.
Included in the Department’s response to the Coal generation in Great Britain: The pathway to a low-carbon future consultation is the decision to use CO2 intensity as a means of excluding coal generation from the Capacity Market, which is a Government-funded series of auctions designed to procure back-up power generation capacity.
The UK has been at the forefront of encouraging the world to move towards clean growth and is proud to have been one of the first countries to commit to ending unabated coal generation.
The UK is already one of the most successful countries at growing its economy while reducing emissions. These have fallen by more than 40 per cent since 1990, while the economy has grown by two thirds.
This comes as a result of a number of factors, but is largely driven by the UK’s carbon price support and the increase in low carbon generation on the system. The level of coal generation in 2016 fell to 9%, down from 22% in 2015, and in the second quarter of 20175 it fell to a record low of 2%.
Over the same period low-carbon generation supplied more than 53% of electricity.
Scotland became coal-free with the closure of the Longannet power station two years ago.
Frank Gordon, Policy Manager at the Renewable Energy Association, commented: “Using maximum carbon intensity levels is something we have been calling for over the past year, and we now urge the government to commit to further reducing the carbon intensity of technologies that can bid in so that dirty diesel facilities will no longer be eligible to bid into the scheme.”
8 Jan 2018
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