Denmark ends using coal as UK is set to complete its exit

Denmark has shut down its last coal power plant and the United Kingdom is next. The list of European countries with such facilities drastically shrunk over the past few years.

When market forces trample business plans, coal phaseouts tend to be expedited. Denmark, which has the highest share of wind power in electricity generation in the world, is now free from coal in the sector. Britain has scheduled its exit for this month. Slovakia closed its last such facility in March.

Just a few years ago governments of European countries were hesitating to determine deadlines for the end of the use of the solid fossil fuel. In the meantime, owners of coal plants including state-owned power utilities have increasingly been calling it quits, facing competition from renewables and suffering from CO2 emissions costs and other environmental requirements.

Esbjerg shutdown marks end of coal era in Denmark

At the end of August, Denmark-based energy company Ørsted shut down Esbjerg, its last coal-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant. It is located in the country’s west. Since 2006, the utility has been transitioning to certified sustainable biomass, the announcement adds.

Danish authorities mandated in October 2022 that Ørsted maintain operations at unit 3 in Esbjerg and to restart the decommissioned unit 4 at Studstrup, which also primarily used coal, and unit 21 at its Kyndby facility, which burned oil, too. The latter two were officially shut down together with Esbjerg, the utility pointed out.

A large wood pellet silo at Studstrup is being rebuilt after a fire. It is set to be completed by the end of the year and Ørsted said it would no longer have any coal as a reserve fuel.

Britain to exit coal power club on September 30

In late June, Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station received its last coal shipment. Britain’s last coal plant is about to end operations on September 30.

The plan is to redevelop the site as a zero carbon technology and energy hub. The company said last year it would produce low-carbon hydrogen there and gradually reach 500 MW in electrolysis capacity by the end of the decade.

In early 2015, the UK was producing over a third of its electricity from coal, after which the share was swiftly halved and kept shrinking. Such power plants were used almost only in the winter season.

From dust, ash dumps to green hydrogen or battery storage

Slovakian energy company Slovenské elektrárne ended production at its CHP plant Vojany in March, completing the country’s coal phaseout. The facility barely worked during its last few years online. The job became easier with the completion of the Mochovce 3 nuclear reactor.

Remedial works and cleanup began immediately to clear up the area. Possible alternatives are renewables, battery storage, a small modular reactor, green hydrogen production and the use of existing waste ash in the construction industry, Slovenské elektrárne has revealed.

Slovenia’s last coal plant nearing bankruptcy

The list of countries generating power from coal has drastically shrunk over the past few years.

Slovenian Minister of the Environment, Climate and Energy just said that without state intervention, the country’s sole coal plant Termoelektrarna Šoštanj (TEŠ) would go bankrupt by next year. The government is preparing a law to keep it afloat again. TEŠ is run by state-owned power utility Holding Slovenske elektrarne or HSE.

Bulgaria has pulled a similar move for its only such state-owned facility.

Croatia and Romania are among the few European Union member states that also have coal phaseout deadlines past 2030, but they are unlikely to hold out that long either. Only Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and Turkey would remain in the continent, but the situation is changing fast.