The death of coal power in the UK - OWID

The UK was was the birth place of the coal industry that powered the industrial revolution. The last coal-fired power station was closed two years ago and it now contirbutes nothing to Britain's power mix. / bne IntelliNews

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By Hannah Ritchie for Our World in Data March 24, 2026

The United Kingdom was the birthplace of coal. It has now, effectively, died there, Our World in Data reprots. 

As shown in the chart, in the late 1980s, around two-thirds of the UK’s electricity came from coal. By the time I was born in the 1990s, this had dropped to just over half.

The use of coal has plummeted in my lifetime. It now makes up around 0.1% of the UK’s electricity.

Coal was first replaced by gas, but is now being pushed out by wind, solar, and biomass.

Explore more charts on the death of British coal.