By Susanna Twidale
RATCLIFFE-ON-SOAR, England (Reuters) – The closure of Britain’s last coal plant is a major milestone on the path for the country to meet its climate targets, said the CEO of Uniper, which owns the plant.
Britain has a climate target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and decarbonise its power sector by 2030 which will require it to reduce fossil fuel power production and increase renewable generation such as wind and solar.
“This is absolutely a key milestone in delivering that and we shouldn’t underestimate how important this is. It’s the first time in 142 years that there will be no coal on the UK energy system,” Michael Lewis, Uniper CEO said in an interview at an event to mark the plant’s closure.
The Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, in England’s Midlands started generation in 1967 and has produced enough energy to make more than 21 trillion cups of tea and its 2 gigawatt capacity is enough to power two million homes.
The plant employed 170 staff and Lewis said some are taking voluntary redundancy, some are retiring and others are staying to help with decommissioning which will take around two years.
After decommissioning “there are various options to develop the site around advanced manufacturing and low carbon energy and storage … we will be looking at whatever’s possible,” he said.
The plant closure, late on Monday, means Britain is the first G7 country to end coal-power generation and Lewis said other countries can learn from Britain’s progress.
“Through long-term policy incentives, we’ve driven down the cost (of renewables) and that’s enabled us to build up the position where we can close coal,” he said.
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by David Evans)
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