The UK coal phase-out: a timeline

Coal built the British grid - the world’s first public coal-fired power station lit London’s Holborn Viaduct in 1882 - and for the next century it was the default answer to every unit of demand. Its ending was so fast that most of it fits inside this site’s own dataset.

The timeline

2008-2012 - the peak of the plateau. Coal still supplies roughly 40% of GB electricity (2012 was its last dominant year - and produced the dirtiest half-hours on record). The EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive forces the dirtiest stations to opt out and burn through limited running hours.

2013 - the carbon price floor. The quiet policy that did the loudest work: a top-up tax on generators’ emissions that made every coal megawatt-hour pay for its carbon. Coal’s economics never recovered.

2015 - the deadline is named. The government announces coal’s end by 2025. Longannet - Scotland’s last coal station - closes the following spring.

2016-2019 - the collapse. Ferrybridge, Rugeley, Eggborough and others close in quick succession. On 21 April 2017 the grid records its first coal-free day since 1882. By 2019, coal is under 3% of the mix.

2020-2023 - the long tail. Coal-free runs stretch past two months (2020). A handful of units survive on winter contingency contracts - called on for a few tense evenings, then released.

30 September 2024 - the end. Ratcliffe-on-Soar generates its final megawatt-hour. The longest coal-free run starts that day and now simply never ends.

What it proves

A grid can retire its dominant fuel within a single investment cycle when policy, economics and alternatives line up. Carbon intensity fell by roughly three quarters over the same years; wind took coal’s crown as the largest single source of generation in several recent years. The open question - what fills coal’s flexibility role as gas eventually follows it - is the story the live dashboard is quietly telling every day.

Full answer to “is any coal left?”: Is the UK still burning coal?