UK coal power stations to shut down by 2025

All of the UK’s coal-fired power stations will cease operations within a decade.

The Government has announced plans to close all uneconomical coal-fired power stations by 2025 and restrict their use by 2023.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd confirmed this announcement ahead of a major speech this morning, which will set out a new direction for energy policy that focuses on energy security and delivers for families and businesses.

Amber said: “Energy security comes first and I am determined to ensure that the UK has secure, affordable, and clean energy supplies that hardworking families and businesses can rely on now and in the future.

“We are tackling a legacy of underinvestment and ageing power stations which we need to replace with alternatives that are reliable, good value for money, and help to reduce our emissions.

“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.

“Let me be clear: this is not the future. We need to build a new energy infrastructure, fit for the 21st century.

“Our determination to cut carbon emissions as cost effectively as possible is crystal clear and this step will make us one of the first developed countries to commit to taking coal off our system”.

In the last year alone, coal plants produced 30% of the UK’s electricity, therefore the Government will have to establish a new method to replace this lost power.

Among the power stations set to close isSSE’s Ferrybridge site, which will cease operations in March 2016 and put 172 jobs at risk.

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