Fossil fuels
Fossil fuel generation on Great Britain's transmission network is now almost entirely gas-fired. Coal-fired generation ended on 30 September 2024, when the country's last coal power station closed.
- Current output
- 7.58GW
- Share of generation
- 26.2%
Breakdown
| Source | GW | % |
|---|---|---|
| Gas | 7.58 | 26.2 |
| Coal | 0.00 | 0.0 |
History
Fossil fuels output
Share of total generation
Fossil fuels output and share of total generation over the selected range.
About fossil fuels
Gas remains the largest single dispatchable source on the system, filling the gap left by coal and balancing the intermittency of wind and solar. Gas-fired output tends to rise on cold, still days when wind generation is low, and fall on windy days when renewables cover most of demand.
A history of coal
The world's first coal-fired power station opened at 57 Holborn Viaduct in London on 12 January 1882, built by Thomas Edison to supply electric lighting to the surrounding streets. Coal went on to dominate Great Britain's electricity supply for over a century, at its peak in the 1980s supplying around 70% of the country's power from dozens of large stations.
Decline began in the 1990s during the so-called "dash for gas", as privatisation and cheaper North Sea gas made new combined-cycle gas turbines more attractive than coal. The pace accelerated sharply after 2013, when the government introduced a carbon price floor that made coal generation increasingly uneconomic compared with gas.
In 2001 the European Union's Large Combustion Plant Directive obliged ageing power stations to fit expensive emissions-reduction equipment or close by 2015, prompting the closure of most of Britain's oldest coal plants. The country's last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, generated its final unit of electricity on 30 September 2024 - bringing 142 years of coal power in Great Britain to an end, and making it the first G7 nation to phase out coal entirely.
Across that history, Great Britain is estimated to have burnt around 4.6 billion tonnes of coal for grid electricity, emitting roughly 10.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the process.
Gas today
Combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) can start up and adjust output far faster than coal or nuclear plants, which is why gas has become the system's main "swing" generator - stepping in when renewable output drops and stepping back when it recovers. This flexibility is also why gas prices have such a strong influence on the wholesale electricity price shown on this site: gas is very often the marginal generator that sets the market price.
Sources
- Carbon Brief: "How the UK transformed its electricity supply in just a decade" - coal tonnage and CO₂ totals since 1882.
- Holborn Viaduct power station and Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station - Wikipedia, for opening and closure dates.
- UK government: carbon price floor policy documents.
Records
Real, sourced figures - hand-checked periodically against the sources below (see "Last checked"), not computed live from this site's own stored history, which for a fresh install would only cover a few days or weeks rather than a full year.
- Highest gas generation (this year)24.1GW - 14 January 2026
- Lowest gas generation (this year)0.4GW - 5 June 2026
- Last coal generation30 September 2024
- Peak coal share of generation (1980s)~70%
Source: National Energy System Operator (Elexon BMRS for the "this year" figures) and UK Government, "End of coal power in Great Britain", September 2024. Last checked: 4 September 2026.