Britain, the birthplace of coal power, produced more electricity from zero-carbon sources such as wind, solar and nuclear than from fossil fuel plants for the first time in 2019, National Grid said on Wednesday.

Having built the world’s first coal-fired power plant in the 1880s, coal became Britain’s dominant electricity source and a major economic driver for the next century. But last year Britain became the first G7 country to commit to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and in November will host the United Nations’ international climate talks in Glasgow.

The data shows wind, solar, hydro, nuclear and imports produced about 48.5% of Britain’s electricity in 2019 while fossil fuels such as coal and gas contributed about 43%. The rest came from biomass.

The increase in zero-carbon power marks a huge shift from almost two decades ago when fossil fuels provided about three quarters of the country’s electricity.

The shift has been mainly thanks to a rapid increase in Britain’s renewable power capacity, with wind, solar and hydro producing more than a quarter of the country’s electricity in 2019, up from only 2.3% in 1990.

Source: reuters.com