5 ms·

What happens today if everyone in, say, the United Kingdom switches to 'green' electricity providers? I hardly think the result will be blackouts...

• melling 7y ago
  “Not coal” Natural gas is not coal. It’s cheap and much cleaner.
• ben_w 7y ago
  What happens if, today, 4th December at 13:05:00 GMT, the UK specifically stops using coal is that it switches from exporting 802 MW to France to importing 1290 MW from France. Right now, even though we’re pretty close to the Winter solstice, the UK is producing about 1.5 times more electricity from solar than from coal. Yes, there are other fossil fuels besides coal in the UK, and yes renewables only supply about a third of the UK’s electricity right now, but coal itself is practically dead. https://gridwatch.co.uk/ https://gridwatch.co.uk/
  • NeedMoreTea 7y ago
    It's even nearer dead than that small number implies. Much of that is from keeping the few coal plants idling on standby or tiny load for fast spin up, if the grid asks, with coal as source of last resort. Two of the six plants we have left announced last month they wouldn't be bothering going to the 2025 coal elimination date, and will close in 2020. Leaves 4 I think. Same month the lovely government approved a new deep coal mine in Cumbria. huh?
    • solstice 7y ago
      I mean, you could let the remaining coal miners dig it up but don't allow it to be burned. At the same time work hard to establish new ways of earning money in the communities.
      • ben_w 7y ago
        It would be nice to think that. The party proposing this policy is the party that closed the coal mines in the first place.