•Britain’s last coal-fired power plant closed, ending 142 years of coal-generated electricity in the nation that sparked Industrial Revolution.
•The Ratcliffe-on-Soar station in central England finished its final shift
•The U.K. government aims to generate all of Britain’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.
•The shutdown makes Britain the first country from the Group of Seven major economies to phase out coal—though some other European nations, including Sweden and Belgium, got there sooner.
•The world’s first coal-fired electricity plant, Thomas Edison’s Edison Electric Light Station, opened in London in 1882.
•In 1990 coal provided about 80% of Britain’s electricity. By 2012 it had fallen to 39%, and by 2023 it stood at just 1%.
•More than half of Britain’s electricity now comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and the rest from natural gas and nuclear energy.