Katharine Hayhoe: Burning coal is the most dirty, polluting, and inefficient way to get electricity. As early as 1306, Edward I banned Londoners from burning it, due to its noxious smog. So which countries are phasing it out the fastest now? Greece and the UK lead the way! Source: www.wri.org/insights/cou...

Burning coal is the most dirty, polluting, and inefficient way to get electricity. As early as 1306, Edward I banned Londoners from burning it, due to its noxious smog. So which countries are phasing it out the fastest now? Greece and the UK lead the way! Source: www.wri.org/insights/cou...

@philplait.bsky.social you may like the above too

I just saw that! Interesting. I just wish methane weren't expanding as well. Hopefully that'll get pushed out by renewable soon as well.

Mostly is in Europe. 2023; gas generation fell for the fourth consecutive year

If you include 2023 Germany is now on consumption level of 1963 for Lignite, another 26.8 TWh less than in 2022. hard coal-fired power plants 21.4 TWh lower than in 2022. Gross generation fell to the level of 1955. Still a way to go for 🌞, 🌬️and 🔋 www.energy-charts.info/index.html?l...

Energy-Chartswww.energy-charts.info Die Energy-Charts bieten interaktive Grafiken zu: Stromproduktion, Stromerzeugung, Emissionen, Klimadaten, Spotmarktpreisen, Szenarien zur Energiewende und eine umfangreiche Kartenanwendung zu: Kraftw...

but it's good because now stuttgart is safe from a tsunami hitting neckar-westheim...

I like looking at this time to time grid.iamkate.com

National Grid: Livegrid.iamkate.com Shows the live status of Great Britain’s electric power transmission network

Now you've got me curious about the relative hazards (aside from climate) of coal vs. wood.

Eg, logging has the highest rate of occupational injuries and death among industries. And the rate was multitudes higher before mechanization.

How Logging Accidents Happenwww.kentuckycourage.com Logging is considered the most dangerous occupation in the US, contact workers comp attorneys at Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer if you been injured.

I wonder where Australia is on this list. We have very high household solar uptake & growing grid scale RE coming on line but still a long way to go.

My favorite place to look this up is ember-climate.org/data/data-to.... Looks like coal in Australia dropped from 79% to 62% from 2005 to 2013, and from 64% to 46% from 2015 to 2023. The decline is less in absolute terms, though, because total generation has been increasing.

That's terrific! Why did the UK manage to do so well? I didn't think the Tories were into renewables. Some relatives installed solar panels because there was a grant & they could sell to the National Grid - then the grant & National Grid thing was taken away from them.

I am not sure but unf my guess would be so-called natural gas

It looks like they did pretty well on the "coal reductions due to zero carbon power" metric, as well. The UK has a (relatively) great offtake structure for captured carbon, but I don't think it's big enough for gas to count for that much zero carbon power.

I'm starting with this, because it gives a longer history: www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-.... But wait, there's more! A dashboard (for GB, not UK): grid.iamkate.com Past year: Wind>nukes>biomass>solar>hydro

it was a mix of declining overall electrical use (energy efficiency and/or declining manufacturing, I don't know), coal plummeting, fossil gas ~steady, nuclear declining, and wind and solar growing rapidly

Historical electricity datawww.gov.uk Historical electricity data: 1920 to 2022

also, with graphical data from a different but generally consistent source, I forgot to include biomass (a potentially problematic source due to land use and air pollution issues)

Ohhhhh of course, good point. I've been away too long. Thanks!

Yeah I do miss cooking on gas. But it's good to stop it. Sadly.

I thought I would too, but I love my induction stove now! It boils so quickly and provides a safe workspace too, as it only heats up when the pot is touching.

I absolutely loathed the induction stove in the previous flat I was in. It mostly didn't work. Errors all the time. Five minutes of heating, then "E8" error. Totally random how hot it got, or didn't. Couldn't sterilise baby's bottles sometimes. Very common apparently. Glad yours behaves better!!

GB Gas ⚡️ 27.5% - 76 TWh (Last rolling 12 mo) 47% - 157 TWh (2010)

Could also be Thatcher ending coal mining subsidies - at a time when North Sea gas production was rising.

I thought this was the year 2000 onwards.

(although how they got "an 8 year period" out of "2000-2022" is beyond me :-) )

Contracts for Difference encouraging the expansion of offshore wind has played a part too: ourworldindata.org/grapher/elec...

Electricity production in the United Kingdomourworldindata.org An interactive visualization from Our World in Data.

The UK coal reserves are exhausted and expensive to extract and the fossil oligarchs have long since moved to gas. Less particular contamination, same or even worse greenhouse footprint.

Yep, a few people have said gas, can't believe I forgot it. It just surprised me it's so recent :-)

Im glad Ontario phased it out 10 years ago but annoyed that Canada isn't on the top 10 list. Are the remaining provinces laggards?

It’s because we had already gotten rid of so much of ours before 2014. This just shows progress over the last decade.

And some of the more Provincial actions (Alberta going from 80% in 2014 to 0% now in 2024) get hidden in the country average. Which is not a criticism of the list, just interesting to see there are some big moves in other places too at a sub national level!

Ahh. I didn't realize other provinces had made that much progress. This is great news. Thanks :)

Ireland had a peat-fired power plant still operating earlier this century.

We need to TAX IT otherwise we will continue to support the biggest polluters in the world, the coal industries of China and India.

i would burn coal before using nuclear fuel example Fukushima in japan the russian reactor now part of ukraine Chernobyl both have major pollution of irradiating vast areas no longer habitable by humans for the next 30k years the expense of clean up is still going on on both i would claim nuclear

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