Coal to Clean

The report argues that the UK can transition directly to clean power generation by 2025, bypassing the need for a 'gas bridge' of new large gas plants. It finds that renewables, particularly offshore wind, along with interconnectors and battery storage, are sufficient to replace coal capacity. The document suggests that relying on large gas plants would be costly and lock in higher emissions, recommending instead a focus on long-term storage innovation and policies to limit emissions from small peaking gas generators.

• The UK is projected to complete its coal phase-out by 2025 without constructing new large gas plants, as renewables are expected to replace coal capacity. By 2025, electricity output from renewable sources is forecast to exceed the highest level of coal generation recorded this century, which was 142 TWh in 2006.
• Of the seven coal plants remaining at the end of 2016 (totaling 14GW), contracts to replace five have already been signed. These replacements consist of a mix of fossil generation—primarily small peaking gas generators—and non-fossil options including battery storage, Demand Side Response (DSR), and interconnectors.
• The UK's grid transition toward renewables makes large gas plants unsuitable and costly, as new capacity is only needed infrequently. The report notes that the load factor for remaining coal plants averaged 19% in 2017 and is expected to drop to just 3% by 2025.
• Decarbonisation of the electricity system relies heavily on electricity imports, with interconnectors forecast to supply 22% of electricity by 2025. A failure to meet this target could result in carbon emissions being approximately 70MT higher than BEIS projections by the end of 2025.

APA

Moore, C., MacDonald, P., & Jones, D. (2018). Coal to Clean. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/coal-to-clean

Chicago

Moore, Charles, Phil MacDonald, and Dave Jones. Coal to Clean. Ember, 2018. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/coal-to-clean.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Moore |first1=Charles |last2=MacDonald |first2=Phil |last3=Jones |first3=Dave |title=Coal to Clean |publisher=Ember |date=13 April 2018 |url=https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/coal-to-clean |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{moore2018coal, author = {Moore, Charles and MacDonald, Phil and Jones, Dave}, title = {{Coal to Clean}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2018}, month = apr, url = {https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/coal-to-clean}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }