The United Kingdom has announced the closure of its remaining coal-fired power plant in the county of Nottinhamshire in the East Midlands of England. The Ratcliffe-on-Soar was a 2 GW subcritical power plant, composed by four 500 MW units. The power plant operator, the German utility Uniper, had originally planned to close the facility by the end of 2022, however, the plans were delayed due to the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war. The closure of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant marks the end of over 140 years of coal power in Britain, and it also represents the first country member of the G7 to achieve this ambition.
In September 2023, Uniper announced plans to convert the power plant to produce hydrogen by electrolysis at the site, with the aim to achieve 500 MW of green hydrogen electrolysis capacity by the 2030s. The development is subject to a number of conditions, including financial decisions, planning permission and hydrogen purchase agreements. The hydrogen produced would be used to decarbonise industry, transport and electricity in the East Midlands.
The UK aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, also plans to decarbonise the electricity sector by 2035.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.