Is this the end for ‘king coal’ in Britain?As the black stuff burnt in the UK plummets to a level not seen since the early steam age, we trace its long, deep history and the problems left in its wakeBritain achieved an unlikely status as a power provider last year. Its annual consumption of coal plunged to the lowest level in 250 years. According to figures released last week, a mere 8 million tonnes were incinerated in UK factories and power plants. That is roughly the same amount that was burned nationally in 1769, when James Watt was patenting his modified steam engine.
That invention helped to spark the Industrial Revolution and triggered a massive rise in annual coal use in Britain, which soared to well over 200 million tonnes by the mid-20th century. Now levels have plummeted back to their original pre-revolution state. King coal – once the undisputed ruler of British industry – has finally been dethroned.
It has been an extraordinary transformation. Britain evolved into a world power thanks to its use of coal. It was the first western nation to mine it and burn it on a large scale, and it was the first to fill its cities with polluted smog, factories and power plants as a result. Coal runs along a deep, dark vein through British history.
“For centuries, Britain led the world in coal production,” says Barbara Freese in her book about the dark stuff,
Coal: A Human History. “It triggered the Industrial Revolution and created an industrial society the likes of which the world had never seen.”
And now that (dubious) honor has passed to China and (increasingly) India.
