How was electricity generated using coal?
Coal is a fossil fuel that had generated electricity in Great Britain since the industrial revolution. However, in 2024, the last coal fired power station closed, ending 142 years of coal powered generation.
How did coal generate electricity?
Burning coal reacted with oxygen in the air, turning all the stored solar energy into thermal energy, which was released as heat. However, this reaction also produced carbon dioxide and methane, which are harmful greenhouse gases.
In 1882, Thomas Edison’s Holborn Viaduct coal plant started generating electricity for public use. It was the first power station of its kind, burning enough coal to provide energy to light 1,000 lamps in the City of London.
Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Britain produced much of its power in this way. Coal generation peaked in the early nineties, making up over 60% of the mix before the ‘dash for gas’ heralded its decline.
How did the grid use coal?
In 2012, coal-fired power represented 43% of electricity, but for the two years before coal powered generation ended, only 1.6% of electricity in Britain was generated by coal. We saw significant periods of coal-free electricity generation, including a record 68 day run, in 2020.
The heavy spinning turbines in coal and gas generators – whose rotating speed syncs with the grid’s frequency – brought important stabilising properties like inertia to the electricity system.
As Britain phased out coal, we introduced new innovations and technologies – for example our stability pathfinder and inertia measurement tools – to manage these properties instead.
You can track the decarbonisation of Britain’s electricity system via our live carbon intensity dashboard.