When the coal-fired turbines at this sprawling power plant north of London went silent this week, the skies above its eight giant steam stacks finally cleared — and Britain became the world’s first major economy to quit coal power.
It’s a milestone for the country that was first to harness the dirty fuel, in the 19th century. Coal powered the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the British Empire. At the height of its reliance on coal, in the 1950s, about 96% of the United Kingdom’s electricity came from burning it.
That fell to zero Monday evening, when the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant, in the English Midlands, shut off its turbines after 57 years. It was the country’s last coal-fired plant.
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