All of the UK's coal power stations will be closed within 10 years, the government has announced.
Around 28 percent of all power generated in the UK derives from coal, but minsters have decided the contribution to emissions is too high to justify.
The remaining eight completely coal-burning stations, and the coal elements of five other dual energy plants, will all have to close by 2025 the energy secretary has said, with a phased closure beginning from 2023.
In a speech to be given later today Amber Rudd, the climate and energy secretary for the government, will say that high emissions coal plants are "not the future" for the UK, with nuclear power rather than renewable energy taking primacy. "It cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the UK to be relying on polluting, carbon intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations," Rudd will say.
Recent years have seen a number of coal power stations closed and earlier this year it was confirmed the 980MQ Ferrybridge C facility, in Yorkshire, will shut in 2016.
Rudd's speech with mark a shift in energy policy with the government moving away from a renewable energy focus, the Wall Street Journal reported. The policy alteration also comes on the back of 25 businesses working with solar energy saying they would have to shut if a proposed cut in the solar feed-in tariff went ahead -- one business told the Guardian the change would "stop an industry in its tracks".
The move away from coal also comes in the context of government officials confirming the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant will be constructed and partly financed by Chinese businesses. Rudd will say that nuclear power is safe and the future of energy production lies with the radioactive power source.
As well as the reliance on nuclear the country will also renew its focus on gas power, with a number of new power stations to be built. "One of the greatest and most cost-effective contributions we can make to emission reductions in electricity is by replacing coal-fired power stations with gas," Rudd is set to say. "Gas is central to our energy secure future. In the next 10 years, it's imperative that we get new gas-fired power stations built."
At present government stats show ten power stations which are completely run using gas and a number of others using 'gas oil' for energy production.
The government will hold a consultation early next year to decide when exactly to close all of the remaining coal-fired power stations.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
