Techno Savvy Club

The UK government has announced that every coal-fired power station will be shut down by 2025, roughly 10 years from now. The move is ostensibly about reducing carbon emissions. Amber Rudd, the country's energy secretary, said that "we need to build a new energy infrastructure fit for the 21st century... this step will make us one of the first developed countries to commit to taking coal off our system."

While the government's press release includes some very punchy phrases about "energy security," "hardworking families," and "legacy of underinvestment," the document is very short on actual details. It says that coal power stations will be restricted by 2023 and then completely phased out by 2025... but it doesn't say what they will be replaced by.

The current assumption is that coal will be replaced by gas power plants in the short term, which produce a lot less CO2 than coal, with nuclear power hopefully picking up some slack in the future. Talking to the BBC, Rudd said that nuclear power is vital to the government's energy policy, noting that the new nuclear power stations planned for Wylfa in Wales and Moorside in Cumbria could go a long way toward providing the low-carbon electricity that the UK needs to meet emissions targets. No mention was made of the new Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor, which has been in bureaucratic limbo for years, though it appears that a final deal between EDF (the operator), China (which will partially fund its construction), and the UK government is in the process of being hammered out.Coal currently provides around 30 percent of the UK's electricity, with natural gas (40 percent), nuclear (17 percent), wind, and hydro making up the rest of our power mix. The Tory government's announcement isn't exactly groundbreaking; coal has been on the way out for a long time. Back in 1990, coal provided a massive 67 percent of our power, and the previous UK government had already agreed to mostly phase out coal power stations by 2025.

Renewables, such as wind and hydro power, seem to have fallen by the wayside. Earlier in the year, the new Conservative government scrapped most of its onshore wind and solar subsidies, along with a bunch of other green programs, including biomass subsidies, the green homes scheme, and the selling off of the country's green investment bank.

Earlier this week, a new report (PDF) by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) found that the UK was the only G7 nation to be dramatically increasing fossil fuel subsidies—most notably, that North Sea oil and gas production will be further subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of £1.7 billion. Shelagh Whitley, an author of the ODI report, pointed out that this is rather hypocritical. "The UK has been cutting back support for solar power and energy efficiency, arguing that the burden was too high," she said. "Our figures reveal that in spite of supposed budget constraints, the government is giving ever increasing handouts to oil and gas majors."The cut to wind subsidies was particularly irksome: onshore wind is one of the UK's best (i.e. most cost-effective) options for renewable, low-carbon electricity generation. As far as the Tories are concerned, it looks like nuclear power is the only solution that will produce enough power to prevent blackouts while also hitting emissions targets. There are still subsidies available for offshore wind, but the initial outlay is significantly higher than onshore, making it much less cost-effective.

This post originated on Ars Technica UK