Britain passes one week without coal power for first time since 1882

[hjek]

Banks Mining recently started a new opencast coal mine in Pont Valley in the North[0], and Druridge Bay is still at risk of being mined[1].

Also worth keeping in mind that a many coal power plants have just switched over to burning "biomass", which is a lovely sounding euphemism for burning wood, but is "green energy" and thus eligible for massive subsidies. Drax, the largest CO2 emitter in the UK, burns more wood than the UK produces, so a lot of it comes from forests being chopped down in the US.[2]

[0]: https://www.coalaction.org.uk/2018/03/protection-camp

[1]: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/saving-druridge-...

[2]: https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/axedrax-campaign/

[ArnoVW]

That is not as crazy as it sounds. The problem with CO2 is the fact that we're burning oil that was previously safely sequestered deep below the surface, thus increasing dramatically the overal amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The carbon from trees is part of the short term cycle, it was 'already in the environment'. The idea being of course that you burn biomass that is produced on purpose, or the byproduct of industrial activities, instead of massively cutting down trees in wild forrests. In this case, yes you're stil releasing carbon into the atmosphere, but the thing you're burning absorbed the carbon before so it's neutral.

Good filters are of course needed to prevent soot and particulates from polluting the air.

http://www.carbonneutralcommons.com/glossary/short-long-term...

[andyjohnson0]

There's a real-time view of what is powering the UK national grid at [1]. Currently gas (~40%), wind (~22%), and nuclear (~18%), plus various interconnectors (who may be using coal?)

[1] https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

[phillc73]

That's a very useful site!

Clicking the little France icon top left switches to the French equivalent. At the moment ~92% nuclear and ~11% hydro!

What really depresses me is looking at the Australian electricity generation mix:

https://www.energymatters.com.au/energy-efficiency/australia...

There is a ridiculously high amount of black and brown coal here.

[jsingleton]

There are loads of great resources that display this data.

https://www.electricitymap.org/ provides a global map view.

https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/alex.rogers/gridcarbon/ has apps that calculate the carbon intensity.

https://carbonintensity.org.uk/ is my current favourite. It's an API that provides GB data broken down regionally and with a forecast powered by ML.

I wrote more here: https://unop.uk/your-planet-needs-you/

If you want to get involved start here: https://climateaction.tech/

[hjek]

Not surprised by the 40% gas figure. Fracking sites are popping up all over the country here. It's sad.

But I wonder where Drax, the largest CO2 emitter in the UK fit in there? As far as I'm aware, they burn coal and wood only.

[aembleton]

If you look at Electricity Map [1], you can see a real time view, as well as the inter-connectors.

As I write this, the UK is importing 3% from Belgium, 4% from France and 3% from the Netherlands. Belgium and France aren't burning coal, but I think the Netherlands is. 1% of Belgium's electricity is also imported from the Netherlands.

1. https://www.electricitymap.org/?page=country&solar=false&rem...

[Angostura]

Don't forget to mouse over the dials for a handy explanation of the data.

[belorn]

An interesting relation in the production of wind vs burning gas. You can easily see how gas is used to fill in when the wind is not blowing.

[jonatron]

Do you know where the night demand comes from? I expected to see a bigger drop at night

[kleim]

(who may be using coal?)

Australia and Germany?

[MR4D]

The other side of this is that Britain reduces is coal imports by more than 80% in less than 5 years! The UK wins twice - first, by cleaner air, second by a more favorable balance of payments.

https://ourworldindata.org/death-uk-coal

[flavius29663]

well, they are burning wood pellets instead, so they are still importing millions of shitons of organic material.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/uk-now-burning-33-of-worlds-wood...

http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/13866/uk-wood-pellet-imp...

Is it better or worse than coal?

[basetop]

I love these fake feel good stories. In other words, britain offloaded energy intensive manufacturing and its coal burning to china, india, etc.

Just like how ireland "recycles" most of its plastic by shipping them to china.

https://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-plastic-waste-3786393-Jan2...

And of course how norway is doing wonders by buying electric cars and investing in "clean" energy using the money they got by selling oil.

I just can't stand the self-aggrandizing bullshit from northern european countries.

[dannyw]

This is an amazing milestone. Imagine what renewable energy can do for us in 5 years.