The doom of coal is on its way in England as the country prepares the closure of one of its last remaining coal mines located in the north of the country, only two months after another nearby mine ended its coal production.
Banks Group, the owner of the surface mine, applied for permission to extend the life of its last mine in England until 2021 but the application was turned down earlier this summer.
The shutdown comes amid a sharp shift away from using coal-fired power plants in favor of clean electricity from wind turbines and solar panels. Last year, Britain’s total demand for coal fell to 7.9 million tons, down by a third from the year before.
Coal has also suffered a steep fall from favor as the UK has set increasingly ambitious climate targets. The fossil fuel provided around 40 percent of Britain’s electricity as recently as 2012, but last year coal-fired power made up just 2 percent of the UK’s electricity generation, which is the lowest share since the electricity system was first established in 1882.
Britain has also set a record coal-free run this summer, after going 67 days, 22 hours, and 55 minutes without burning coal to generate power – an incredible streak for a country that sourced about 40 percent of its energy from the dirty fossil fuel just a decade ago.
