britain's coal-free day

Britain’s National Grid Tweets First Ever Working Day Without Coal On Friday

Electricity reached a milestone on Friday in Britain. The working day was first-ever without coal power since the Industrial Revolution.

The National Grid tweeted it is the first ever working day with continuous 24-hour coal-free period for the country since the fossil fuel era started.

The West Burton 1 power station went offline on Thursday. It was the only coal-fired plant functioning in the country.

A mix of solar, gas and wind have been providing electricity to Britons and on a weekend of May 2016 the longest continuous period was achieved to 19 hours.

Spokesman of the National Grid said the polluting fuel is now phased out.

In 2016 just 9 percent of the electricity was produced by coal. In 2015 it was around 23 percent. It is learned the last coal power station in the country will be closed by 2025.

The move has been taken in recent years to meet the climate change commitments of the government on international platform.

About a decade ago even one day without coal was unimaginable and now a coal-free day marks a watershed in the energy transition, said head of energy at Greenpeace UK, Hannah Martin.

He added, “The direction of travel is that both in the UK and globally we are already moving towards a low carbon economy.”

It is a significant milestone towards green economic revolution, said head of climate and energy at WWF, Gareth Redmond.

He further added, “Getting rid of coal from our energy mix is exciting and hugely important.”