Britain breaks coal-free power record over Easter weekend

By Elisabeth Mahy | BBC

Britain has broken its record for the longest continuous period without generating electricity from coal.

National Grid said that the coal-free period lasted more than 90 hours before coming to an end on Monday afternoon.

It is the longest period since the industrial revolution and breaks the previous record set in April 2018 of 76 hours and 10 minutes.

The government plans to phase out Britain’s last coal power plants by 2025 to cut greenhouse gases.

Duncan Burt, director of operations at National Grid, told BBC Radio 5 Live it was “a really big deal”.

“It’s all about the sunny weather we’ve been seeing, so energy demand is low. There has been lots of lovely solar power off the panels too.”

In April, 2017 Britain went its first full day without coal since the 19th century.

Coal made up less than 10% of the country’s energy mix last year and will be less than that again in 2019, according to National Grid…Full Story