All coal-fired power to switch off by 2025

BRITAIN will bring an end to 140 years of coal-fired power under new plans to phase out the fossil fuel by 2025.

The Government has confirmed that its 2015 pledge to snuff out the power sector’s coal use within a decade will move ahead under a new rule that limits the “carbon-intensity” of power plants. Unless plants are fitted with eye-wateringly expensive technology that can trap and store carbon before it enters the atmosphere, they will be forced to close by October 2025.

Coal-fired power generation has already fallen by 85 per cent in the past five years due to rising taxes on carbon emissions and the boom in renewables.

Meanwhile, low-carbon options such as green energy projects and nuclear power plants made up more than half of the electricity system. Last year was also the first time since the Industrial Revolution that Britain used no coal-fired power at all over a single 24hour period. But despite the decline, the Government still risks missing its legally binding climate change targets.

The new plans will set an emission limit of up to 450g of CO2 for each kilowatt hour of electricity produced. Greenpeace UK warned that the carbon-heavy fossil fuel should be replaced with clean technologies “well before the 2025 deadline”.