End of an era as UK’s biggest steelworks and last coal-fired power station shut forever on the same day
BRITAIN’S last coal-fired power station was switched off yesterday.
Operations ended last night at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, where the plant had generated electricity since 1968.
It came as the country’s biggest steelworks closed its blast furnace after more than 100 years.
The UK opened the first coal station in 1882 but it has now become the first G7 nation to quit the polluting fossil fuel.
The Ratcliffe-on-Soar station, with its eight vast cooling towers and 199m high towers, has become an East Midlands landmark, powering 2million homes and employing 170 people.
But just one per cent of Britain’s electricity came from coal last year due to an increasing reliance on gas and cleaner energy, such as wind and solar.
Climate campaigners welcomed the closure but Chris Smith, a worker at the site for 28 years, said: “It is a very sad moment.”
Energy minister Michael Shanks said: “Coal workers can be rightly proud of their work powering our country for over 140 years.”
In Port Talbot yesterday, Tata Steel switched to an electric furnace, resulting in 2,200 job losses.
Chief executive Rajesh Nair said: “Today marks a significant event in the history of iron and steelmaking in the UK.”
Unite union General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “These imminent job losses are another act of industrial vandalism.”