STEM update - The Fall of Coal

This is the first in a series of blog posts to try to keep the Bingham u3a STEM Group alive in 2021.  The format is different obviously from the monthly meetings and will consist of regular, short posts, initially following on from last year's presentations on Your Carbon Footprint but hopefully on other STEM subjects.  The next posts will cover Renewable Energy then Carbon Intensity but if you have any ideas on any future topics, preferably topical or local then please let me know.  Or even better, send me some material to post.

Dave Hobson

The Fall of Coal?

  • "Overall, coal provided just 1.6 per cent of the electricity mix in 2020, a dramatic decline from 25 per cent just five years ago"
  • "Emissions from Britain's electricity system drop 66 per cent in seven years, as coal fired power plants have rapidly been phased out"
  • "During the spring and summer, the electricity grid saw its longest ever coal-free record, going almost 68 days without generating power from coal"

Well, not quite the end of coal - on 8 January 2021, coal represented as much as 7% of generation.  And although several plants closed in 2020, Ratcliffe and West Burton are yet to announce closure plans.  Clearly, at the moment, coal is still needed to provide back-up on cold, dark windless days at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  Perhaps coal will survive a bit longer than expected.


The fall and rise(?) of nuclear generation

But will (low carbon) nuclear fill the gap as the coal stations close?  Well, there were interesting developments in 2020 as follows.
  • "Hunterston (AGR) nuclear power station, one of the UK’s oldest remaining nuclear plants, is to close down in 2021 after encountering a series of safety-critical problems in its reactors." These safety issues relate to cracking of the graphite core of the reactor and are common to all the existing gas cooled reactors.
  • "In 2020 it was reported that Rolls-Royce has plans to construct up to sixteen 440 MWe small and medium sized reactors UK", "And 6000 new jobs", 11th November 2020
  • "The UK to start talks with EDF on funding for Sizewell C". Sizewell C is a proposed project to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station with two so called EPR (pressurised water) reactors in Suffolk, due to start in 2031. This will be similar to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station which has two 1600 MW units under construction, more than twice the size of any other unit in the UK.
Two further EPR units had been proposed but are unlikely to go ahead

The first gas-cooled Magnox reactor started at Calder Hall in 1955 and the first of the Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors at Hinkley Point in 1976.  More AGRs were built, the last starting generating in 1988.  These were followed by the single PWR (pressurised water reactor) at Sizewell which opened in 1995

And as for nuclear fusion reactors.
  • "Nuclear fusion power is slowly getting closer", New Scientist 16th December 2020. 
The world’s biggest nuclear fusion power project, ITER in southern France, began its assembly phase on 28 July 2020. ITER’s commercial fusion power plant isn’t expected until 2054.

An excellent video making the case for fusion power, with reference to the UK's efforts at JET (Joint European Taurus) as well as ITER, was published by The Royal Society in January 2021.  An equally interesting and watchable video entitled Fusion power has major problems -  what no one is telling you about puts an opposite view.