Yesterday the UK broke the record for the number of consecutive days it has run without using coal to generate electricity. The new record of over 18 days of coal-free energy generation is now the longest Britain has gone without burning an ounce of coal for power since 1882 and beats the previous record set in mid-2019. Another record was set with solar power. On the 20th April, the UK solar farms generated more than 9.6GW of electricity for the first time. Seven years ago, coal was responsible for generating 40% of the UK energy needs, today that figure is just 2.5%.
Of course, the ongoing lockdown measures have seen a significant reduction in demand across the country, with the increase in domestic demand being outweighed by reduction in industrial demand. The lowering of demand, along with windy and sunny spells across the whole country have all helped towards setting the new record. The UK hopes to stop burning coal to generate electricity by the middle of this decade and has said it eventually wants to see the country’s emissions reduced to pre-industrial levels.
The UK is not the only nation seeing record amounts of renewable energy entering its grids. Germany, the European leader in renewable energy, has also been producing large amounts of electricity from solar and wind. Last week, the good weather helped Germany produce over 32 MW of power from solar, a record. Currently, renewables make up approximately 40% of Germany's energy needs, and by 2038 the government hopes to double that (in January the German cabinet adopted its coal exit law, where it plans to end coal-fired power generation by the same year). Indeed, there were large parts of last month where electricity prices turned negative, meaning that consumers are essentially paid to take excess power off the grid. This is not an unknown phenomena, however, but usually only happens when holidays or weekends coincide with exceptionally sunny or windy weather.