The Future is Green

 

Port Talbot steelworks

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station

 A notable fact caught my attention this week; actually, TWO notable facts! The two being broadcast simultaneously were, I think, mere synchronicity. One was the closure of the blast furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks; two was the shutdown of the last coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire. Chance simultaneous closures in timing, perhaps, but nonetheless, significant ones. Both occurrences represent aspects of the past economic significance of the UK and both mark the 

A somewhat rosy view of the usually overcrowded and 
insanitary pit villages of the North. Many of the miners
were also keen gardeners.

present transition to a greener future. Gone are the late nineteenth century and virtually, the complete twentieth century, of the UK’s economic supremacy featuring heavy industry, chiefly in the North of the country which overtook the then more rural South in financial prosperity and, incidentally, in landscape ugliness. Steel-making in Port Talbot occurred there because of the proximity of abundant supplies of high-grade coal hewn from a number of pits in the Welsh valleys. The first coal-fired power station opened at 57, Holborn Viaduct in London in 
1882. Coal was burnt to drive a steam engine which in turn drove a 27tonne 93 kw generator. This then, initially, lit just under 1000 incandescent lamps along the street.

Descent to the coal face

Coal production in the UK reached a peak in the mid 20th century when domestic use was ubiquitous and export was healthy. The shutdown of the 57 year old plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in September 2024, thus ends 140 years of coal power generation in the U.K. It is estimated by Carbon Brief, that during that period, the U.K. burned its way through 4.6 billion tonnes of coal and 10.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than almost all other nations have ever produced from all fossil fuels.

Marco Polo 
Venice 1254-1324

It is believed that the Romans first saw the potential of coal and possibly started mining in the Nettlebridge area of Somerset. Marco Polo *** described coal as 'black rocks that burn like wood'. He noted that where coal was plentiful, people took two to three baths a week rather than the usual one or two a year. 

Newcomen steam engine 1712

Although demand for coal grew rapidly in the 17^th century, it was the invention of the first practical steam engine in 1712 which made the coalfields of central Scotland, south Wales, the Midlands and the North East accessible for transportation. In the early 1700s about 3 million tonnes of coal were mined each year but by the 1830s, over a hundred years later, the amount had leapt to 30 million tonnes. The opening of the first public coal-fired power station came relatively late [1882] but other, small plants followed and by the start of the 20 century, almost all of Britain’s electricity was produced by coal-generated plants. Even by 1950, 96% of coal power generation remained, and in 1966 Ferrybridge C, a so-called ‘super coal plant,’ opened to be followed by plants of similar size across Britain’s coalfields; in total, 12 were established between 1966 and 1974 and continued to need huge amounts of coal. The Miners’ Strike, so seminal in several ways, abruptly stopped mining between 1984/5 after which coal power failed to return to its pre-strike zenith. 

Orgreave, a bitter confrontation between striking
miners and the police, which exemplified the
divisive and long-lasting social and political effects
of the Miners' Strike.

In the early 1990s the dash for gas and rising environmental concerns signalled the eventual demise of coal. And over the next decade, coal plants became increasingly expensive to run as legislation insisted on expensive upgrades to coal mining to help reduce pollution and uphold increasing public concern with the environmental costs incurred. The Climate Change Act of 2008 committed to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions relative to the levels of 1990, and finally a new tax in 2013 aimed at increasing the cost of carbon emissions was eventually responsible for closing 10 of the UK's largest coal plants. The Government set out plans in 2015 to end all coal-powered generation within the next ten years but in 2021 the ban was brought forward to October 2024. This was the final coup de grace for this venerated black rock, the mining of which had established coal-related commercial and mining activities over more than a century and a half and which was responsible in the late eighteenth century for the emergence of the much-loved mining villages in the industrial North and Midlands. The social, emotional aspects of this finale to the coal industry have been divisive and long-lasting in the pit villages as the way of life over generations has been eroded or ended. The economic cost to former miners has been amplified by the non-appearance of the promised ‘green’ jobs, another area demonstrating the failure of Governmental planning and economic investment.

In the Forties, this was a common sight in various 
industrial areas: miners walking home after work, 
carrying their 'snap' tins and en route for a wash.
There were normally no pithead baths.

Auckinleck, Scotland. 
Traditional mining village complete with the coal
ration delivered and awaiting removal to the 'coal house'
at the back of the house.

                                                                          Marco Polo ***

Born in Venice in 1254 and died there in 1324 after an astonishingly adventurous life. Polo became a merchant, explorer and adventurer, travelling Europe along the Silk Road, living and exploring in China for nearly a quarter of a century.