Could coal shut-down mark new era for energy?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“That’s the end of coal in the UK for electricity.”

The UK’s last coal-fired power station has closed, ending Britain's 142-year reliance on coal.

But what difference will the closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar make – and could it mark a new dawn for clean energy?

After 20 years of research into microplastics and headline upon headline on their potential harms, how much do we really know about these tiny particles?

Also this week, Marnie turns lab rat for a navigation experiment, and why are we all so obsessed with Moo Deng?

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis

BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, head to bbc.co.uk - search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to the Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.0	I'm Siddhartha Cesset, an assistant commissioner of Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.0	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of
0:13.7	podcasts on all sorts of subjects, relationships, identity, comedy, even one
0:18.9	that mixes poetry, music and inner city life. So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next
0:26.1	fact checking, a feature and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its
0:31.5	audience and maybe that's you. So if you like this
0:34.6	podcast check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:37.8	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. This is the download of BBC Inside Science first broadcast on the 3rd of October
0:48.7	24. I'm Marnie Chesterton. Coming up, we speak to the godfather of microplastics.
0:55.3	After two decades of research, what do we know about their harms?
0:59.5	There's also Pygmy hippo love. I turn into a navigation lab rat, but let's start by marking a moment.
1:07.0	We're ready to go, lads, we've got shutdown available.
1:10.0	1535 Ratcliffe Power Station Unit 4 offload.
1:15.0	Right boys, that's the end of coal in the UK for electricity.
1:18.6	That was the UK's last coal-fired power station shutting down, ending 142 years of coal-generated
1:27.3	electricity. Which has triggered an understandable wave of nostalgia. These massive cooling towers are a fixture of the landscape
1:36.4	and tied to an industry that employed huge numbers over many generations. But what difference will the closure of the plant at Radcliffe-onsor actually make to our electricity
1:47.3	supplies?
1:48.3	After all, renewables, which only 14 years ago produced a mere 7% of our power currently generate more than half our electricity.
1:58.0	To find out more, I spoke to two experts in energy and renewables. Professor Paul Eekins from University College London
2:06.2	and Professor Deborah Greaves from the University of Plymouth. I asked Paul how significant
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