Britain set to pass two months without burning coal for power

On Wednesday this week (10 June), Britain will have gone two full months without burning coal to generate power, the BBC has reported.

Electricity demand fell when Britain went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic and the National Grid responded by taking power plants off the network and  using renewable power instead.

The last coal generator came off the system at midnight on 9 April, with no coal being burnt for electricity since.

This period of being coal-free beats the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes which was set in June last year.

The figures apply to Britain only, as Northern Ireland is not on the National Grid.

A decade ago just 3% of the country's electricity came from wind and solar.