[ti:Britain's Last Coal-Fired Power Station Set to Close]
[al:As It Is]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-09-22]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Britain's last coal-fired power station is set to close at the end of this month.
[00:08.32]The Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station sits in central Britain's East Midlands area.
[00:17.26]It has been producing electricity for nearly 60 years.
[00:22.57]The planned closure will end pollution-linked coal burning for electricity production in Britain.
[00:31.07]It also marks the first time a member of the Group of Seven (G7) leading world economies has completely ended coal-fired energy production.
[00:44.66]The power center operates in the town of Ratcliffe-on-Soar.
[00:50.95]It has long been one of the area's biggest landmarks.
[00:56.09]David Reynolds is a 74-year-old retiree. He remembers seeing the station being built as a child before it opened in 1967.
[01:10.53]He told the French news agency, AFP, "It'll seem very strange because it has always been there." 
[01:20.45]He added, "When I was younger you could go down certain parts and you saw nothing but coal pits."
[01:29.57]Coal-fueled power production has been an important part of Britain's economic history.
[01:37.51]It helped drive an Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. 
[01:45.55]This helped make the country a world superpower.
[01:50.28]But the coal-fired centers also led to increased pollution problems across the nation.
[01:59.14]In the 1980s, coal burning represented 70 percent of the country's electricity production mix. 
[02:08.86]That level began to decrease in the 1990s. 
[02:14.15]By 2013, coal burning made up 38 percent of the country's electricity production.
[02:22.75]The rate fell to five percent in 2018 and dropped to one percent in 2023.
[02:32.13]Britain's Conservative-led government announced in 2015 it planned to close all coal-fired power stations by 2025 in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. 
[02:49.20]Many scientists have linked carbon emissions to planet warming and other climate changes linked to human-related causes.
[03:00.94]As of last year, natural gas represented one-third of Britain's electricity production, power operator National Grid ESO reported. 
[03:14.35]The organization also found that a quarter of electricity production came from wind power, while 13 percent was nuclear.
[03:26.41]Jess Ralston heads a British policy center called the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
[03:36.02]He told AFP that the country's strong push to end coal-fired plants was linked to government requirements as well as a changing economic environment.
[03:51.33]"So larger power plants like coal plants had regulations put on them...and that meant that it was no longer economically attractive to invest in those sorts of plants."
[04:06.89]Britain's new Labour government launched its latest energy plan after its election win in July. 
[04:15.68]The plan calls for investing in offshore wind, tidal energy and nuclear power. 
[04:24.20]The government has said the aim is to make Britain a world leader in "clean energy."
[04:32.69]The planned closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar on September 30 is seen as an important step in Britain's efforts to decarbonize its electricity system by 2030. 
[04:48.06]The country also plans to become carbon neutral by 2050.
[04:54.53]The move makes Britain the first in the G7 to halt all coal powered electricity production. 
[05:03.99]Italy plans to do so by next year, France in 2027, Canada in 2030 and Germany in 2038. 
[05:15.67]Japan and the United States have set no dates for stopping production.
[05:23.43]I'm Bryan Lynn.