Britain is about to pass a significant landmark – at midnight on Wednesday it will have gone two full months without burning coal to generate power. A decade ago about 40% of the country’s electricity came from coal; coronavirus is part of the story, but far from all. When Britain went into lockdown, electricity demand plummeted; the National Grid responded by taking power plants off the network. The four remaining coal-fired plants were among the first to be shut down. The last coal generator came off the system at midnight on 9 April. No coal has been burnt for electricity since. The current coal-free period smashes the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes which was set in June last year. Can coronavirus crisis spur a green recovery? Download the updated BBC Energy Briefing (10.4MB) (PDF, 10.4MB) Coronavirus: Five charts about the biggest carbon crash The […]