United Kingdom closes its last coal power plant (2024)
The Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire shut down, making the United Kingdom the first major economy to fully exit coal power. Britain had been burning coal for electricity for nearly 150 years. At its peak in the 1980s, coal generated roughly 70% of British electricity.
The UK eliminated coal from its grid without reliability disruptions, relying on a mix of natural gas, wind, and nuclear to fill the gap.
The UK's coal exit became a reference case for other industrialized nations, demonstrating that a wealthy economy can retire its entire coal fleet within a generation.
The U.S. is on a similar trajectory but roughly a decade behind. The UK example shows what full coal exit looks like in practice and suggests the U.S. shift is unlikely to reverse, even though America's larger and more geographically diverse grid makes the timeline longer.