BBC News has reported that Britain is about to pass a significant landmark – at midnight on Wednesday the country has gone two months without burning coal to generate power.
A decade ago about 40% of the country's electricity came from coal; coronavirus is part of the story, but far from all. When Britain went into lockdown, electricity demand plummeted; the National Grid responded by taking power plants off the network.
The four remaining coal-fired plants were among the first to be shut down. The last coal generator came off the system at midnight on 9 April 2020. No coal has been burnt for electricity since.
The current coal-free period breaks the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 min. which was set in June 2019.