British energy transition: Get out of coal - continue with nuclear power

Great Britain, the motherland of the Industrial Revolution, is saying goodbye to coal - faster than most of the other major industrialized countries.

Public electricity generation, which began in 1892 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, the world's first coal-fired power station, has long been based almost entirely on fossil fuels.

Now the British have made an emergency stop.

The share of coal-fired power plants, which produced 40 percent of electricity ten years ago, has fallen to 1.8 percent.

The Johnson government has now decided that the last coal-fired power plant will be shut down forever in 2024.

Of the industrialized countries, only smaller ones such as Belgium, Sweden and Austria have so far completely abandoned coal.

France generates almost two thirds of its electricity with nuclear power and no longer needs coal-fired power plants;

According to the coal compromise, Germany will exit by 2038.

On the other hand, China, India and Indonesia are building hundreds of new coal-fired power plants.

So far, there can be no talk of a general global exit from coal.

Lots of wind, lots of energy

In Great Britain, the coal phase-out was not brought about by a planned economy, but by price signals.

The government introduced a surcharge on the EU emission price eight years ago, which rose to 18 pounds (a good 20 euros).

This made coal-fired power plants unprofitable.

To a large extent, gas-fired power plants, which emit much less CO2, have taken over the production of electricity;

they contribute more than a third to meeting demand.

Renewable energies were greatly expanded.

They covered 43 percent of the electricity demand last year.

Wind turbines in particular (24 percent of electricity production) are a strong factor with huge wind farms in the North Sea or the Irish Sea.

In second place (12 percent) of the renewables is biomass.

Solar systems play a rather minor role with only 4 percent.

The British have mastered the expansion of renewables remarkably. State subsidies were largely abolished. They are relying more on market-based processes, for example with auctions when awarding offshore wind farms to the most efficient and cheapest operator. While the Germans are paying a high price for their energy transition with the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) (the EEG subsidy costs consumers 26 billion euros a year, the electricity price is now the highest in the world), Britain is doing it cheaper. Consumers only pay half as many subsidies, and the price of electricity is in the middle of Europe.

And another difference between Germany and Great Britain is striking: British politicians are not even considering phasing out nuclear power, but rather seeing them as an important building block for a stable and low-emission power supply.

This is consensus between the Conservatives and Labor.

The greens only play a marginal role on the island.

No ideological blinkers

Nuclear power plants currently cover a little over 16 percent of the electricity demand. However, the 15 active nuclear reactors are already old and - with the exception of Sizewell B - will be taken off the grid in this decade. In the middle of the decade, a few gigawatts of production capacity are missing. Only then will Hinkley Point C fill the void. This major power station in the county of Somerset alone will meet seven percent of the UK's electricity needs, but the costs are also enormous at £ 22 to 23 billion. Sizewell C is of the same size on the east coast of England and is scheduled to go online in the next decade.

British energy policy is more open to technology than German. There are no ideological blinkers. The Johnson administration is open to the construction of smaller Rolls Royce nuclear reactors. A Canadian company is building a nuclear fusion reactor as a pilot project near Oxford. The demonstration reactor is scheduled to run in 2025.

Great Britain's CO2 emissions have already fallen by more than 40 percent compared to 1990 - more than in Germany. However, the Johnson administration also runs the risk of over-ambition and over-ambition. As early as 2030, combustion engines will no longer be allowed to be registered, nor will hybrid vehicles by 2035. It's going to be an expensive experiment. Great Britain wants to present itself as a model boy before the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow. If the costs are too high, however, acceptance in the population is likely to wane.