The last coal power station in the country will close down today at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, marking the end of the UK’s 142 year reliance on coal as a fossil fuel. Given that coal is regarded as the dirtiest fossil fuel, producing the highest amount of greenhouse gases when burnt, the power plant’s demise marks a major step forward in the UK’s commitment to becoming greener. However, as Len Williams points out in ‘The Planner’, it’s unlikely to be plain sailing.
For one thing, the government will have to juggle managing the current housing crisis alongside providing new homes with heat pumps and vehicle chargers (mandatory from 2025). Housing developers are therefore applying for capacities that are three times greater than that required for equivalent schemes previously. As the capacities are not always available, this is leading to delays in new developments coming on to the market.
The current lack of capacity partly stems from the fact that the UK’s power was originally generated centrally and distributed to a few large power stations and then across the country. Now an increasing amount of electricity is derived from wind and solar power sources, often offshore or in remote locations, making it difficult to transport efficiently across long distances.
The fact that these sources are, by their very nature, intermittent (being weather dependent) means that there is a corresponding need for battery energy storage facilities nationwide, along with other, costly, infrastructure: pylons, substations, transformers, etc.
For developers, the current advice is to engage with DNOs as soon as possible: knowing what capacity will be available for their schemes well in advance of their delivery will be crucial.
For electricity users such as data centres, the advice is to consider locating closer to electricity sources; plugging directly into nearby solar and wind farms for instance.
The above suggestions aside, the inescapable reality for the UK is that far more infrastructure will need to be delivered to meet the demand for green energy, regardless of how unpopular this might prove to people living in the vicinity of such apparatus.
To achieve this, Williams notes, planning reforms will also be necessary, such as relaxing the current rules regarding nationally significant infrastructure projects, and developing local area energy plans (this is already taking place in areas such as the West Midlands and Greater Manchester), as well as speeding up planning for major schemes to enable early resolution in terms of capacities for sites.
It seems the government will have a lot of juggling to do.
