Britain goes 24 hours without generating any power using coal plants

National Grid confirmed Saturday that Britain had gone a full 24-hour cycle without using coal to produce any of the country's electricity.

It was described by the power supplier as the first time since the Industrial Revolution that this had been achieved.

In what was said by National Grid to be a watershed moment, all electricity produced until late Friday night was generated from a mix of sources, but mainly gas fired and nuclear powered generating stations. Wind, biomass, and imported energy were also used Friday.

The 24-hour cycle started Thursday when a coal fires power plant at West Burton went offline.

A National Grid spokeswoman told Xinhua: "The 24 hour cycle was confirmed at 22:50 hours on Friday, after which we started to use coal-fired generation again. We can't (tell) when this new record will be broken."

Earlier this week, a new record was set on Thursday, when Britain went for 19 hours without using any coal-fired generation of electricity.

Britain's first public coal fire power plant opened in London in 1882 and since then coal has played a daily part in generating the country's electricity.

Cordi O'Hara of the National Grid said: "To have the first working day without coal since the start of the industrial revolution is a watershed moment in how our energy system is changing.

"Britain benefits from highly diverse and flexible sources of electricity. Our energy mix continues to change and National Grid adapts system operation to embrace these changes."

O'Hara said that as Britain makes the transition to a low carbon system, coal will remain as an important source of energy.

The British government aims to phase out Britain's last coal-fired power stations by 2025 in its program to cut carbon emissions.

In 2015 almost a quarter of Britain's electricity was supplied from coal-fire plants, but in 2016 this had dropped to just under 10 percent as more of the older coal fired stations closed. Endit