Britain Could See Its First Full Day Without Coal

**ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, DEC. 1-2** Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007. The plant provides 250 full-time jobs for Limestone county. Jewett is one of four towns, two in Texas and two in Illinois, competing for the new state-of-the-art FutureGen power plant developers say would emit almost no pollution, turning coal into gas while capturing and storing climate-changing carbon dioxide deep underground. (AP Photo/Nick Simonite)
**ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, DEC. 1-2** Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007. The plant provides 250 full-time jobs for Limestone c... **ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, DEC. 1-2** Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007. The plant provides 250 full-time jobs for Limestone county. Jewett is one of four towns, two in Texas and two in Illinois, competing for the new state-of-the-art FutureGen power plant developers say would emit almost no pollution, turning coal into gas while capturing and storing climate-changing carbon dioxide deep underground. (AP Photo/Nick Simonite) MORE LESS
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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s National Grid says Friday may be the first full 24-hour work-day since the Industrial Revolution in which the nation doesn’t depend on electricity generated from coal.

As alternative energy production grows, Britain has several times since last spring managed to fully supply its power grid without relying on coal. But the longest period has been 19 hours, and grid officials seem confident that a full day will be achieved.

If Britain goes coal-less Friday, it will be the first time since the world’s first centralized public coal-fired generator opened at London’s Holborn Viaduct in 1882.

Britain wants to phase out coal by 2025.

David Elmes of Warwick Business School says a coal-less work-day is a “milestone in a transition to fuels that will be more flexible and sustainable.”

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Notable Replies

  1. And Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell prepare legislation to declare the U.K. as a “Terrorist State”.

  2. But think of the loss of jobs! Think of the coal miners and their children! Britain hates coal! Boycott them! Hearings! Sanctions! Embargo on their goods until they allow unrestricted burning of the wonder fuel that is COAL!!!111!1one!!!

  3. Avatar for sanni sanni says:

    Very forward thinking. Adapting, strategically, for the future. Sure beats the heck out of regressive, reactionary thinking and policies that are primarily concerned about the future - for the already obscenely wealthy.

  4. Dear American Conservatives.

    See, combating carbon emissions to forestall climate change is not a liberal plot. The conservatives also run Great Britain, and they’re doing it.

    Stop being dumbasses and risking your progeny’s future.

    Sincerely,

    Science

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