Portuguese energy utility EDP has announced the closure of its Sines coal power plant, bringing forward the planned shutdown of coal-fired power plants in the country by two years, from 2023 to 2021.
Germany’s Bundestag passed a bill banning coal as a power source. The country will abandon nuclear energy by 2022 and coal by 2038, and will aim for 55% cuts in GHG emissions by 2030 over 1990 levels.
Seven of the 15 coal plants still working in Spain will cease operations today, after their owners – the electricity companies – decided that it does not make financial sense to adapt them to European regulations. Four more will shut down soon.
This impressive stretch began on March 25, when utility-scale solar, wind and hydro collectively produced more electricity than coal-fired generation, and has continued for at least 40 straight days through May 3, the EIA’s Hourly Electric Grid Monitor shows.
A milder than expected winter led to lower demand for electricity and so the decision was made to close the entire facility now instead of waiting until 2022.
Austria has shut down its last coal-fired power plant as part of a plan to end the use of fossil fuels for energy production by 2030.
The historic decline in CO2 emissions was largely caused by Europe and the US shifting away from coal, resulting in a global 3% decline in coal-fired power generation – the largest drop in 30 years.
A tax on carbon dioxide emissions in Great Britain, introduced in 2013, has led to the proportion of electricity generated from coal falling from 40% to 3% over six years, according to research led by UCL.
Researchers from the University of California – San Diego found that tens of thousands of deaths had been avoided between 2005 and 2016 by replacing coal plants.
Germany is headed for second consecutive year of substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as a sharp drop in coal consumption is driving a decline of the country’s overall energy use in 2019.
