(Bloomberg) — Coal, which fueled the world’s biggest economies for more than a century, is increasingly losing out to renewables.
The latest example of how one of the dirtiest fossil fuels is being squeezed out of the market came this week in Britain, which went for a record 55 hours without its any of its power plants producing electricity by burning coal.
No coal was used for power generation by stations in the U.K. between 10:25 p.m. in London on Monday until 5:10 a.m. on Thursday, according to grid data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time wind turbines produced more power.
The U.K. was an early adopter of renewable energy and has more offshore wind turbines installed than any other country. It also has fields of solar panels that are meeting more and more demand as old traditional power plants close permanently. The government aims to switch off all coal plants by 2025 and has given renewables priority access to the grid.
The previous record of 40 coal-free hours was set in October.
(Written by Jesper Starn and Lars Paulsson)
