At Aberthaw Power Station on the coast of South Wales, Tom Glover examines a dwindling pile of coal, for what may be the last time. At its peak in 2013, the coal-fired power plant generated enough electricity to keep the lights on in 3m homes every year.But today – after almost half a century in operation – all is quiet. The furnaces are not running, there are no plumes from the smokestack, and there is no soot resting on the vehicles in the car park. The plant is simply trying to use up its remaining stockpile of coal before it closes for good early next year. “You do get nostalgic, definitely,” says Mr Glover, who is the UK head of German utility company RWE, which owns Aberthaw, and who was once responsible for buying coal for the plant. “This was my favourite power station,” he says, pointing out the conveyor belts that move coal around the plant. “It’s a place with a lot of engineering.”
The fate of Aberthaw is a harbinger of what is to come as the UK – once the world’s largest coal consumer – prepares to end its addiction to the planet’s most polluting fossil fuel. It is one of only five operational UK coal-powered stations after Cottam in Nottinghamshirewas closed on Monday after 50 years. By next summer only three will remain. For those employed at the plants, the closures will be devastating. But for environmentalistsit will be another victory in their global fight against coal power which is still the world’s biggest source of electricity – its use growing in developing economies such as China and India last year.
When Aberthaw opened in 1971, conventional coal and oil power plants accounted for 88 per cent of electricity supplied to the UK market. Last year coal’s share had shrunk to just s percent. And between April and June this year it fell to an all-time low of just o.6 per cent.