EDF Switches Off U.K.’s Cottam Coal Power Station After 50 Years

(Bloomberg) -- Electricite de France SA turned off its coal-fired Cottam power plant in England for the last time after half a century of powering British homes.

Commissioned in 1968 by the Central Electricity Generating Board, Cottam has a generating capacity of 2 gigawatts, or enough power for more than 3 million households, EDF said. Over its lifetime, the plant has produced 500 terawatt hours of electricity.

The U.K. government’s policy to quit burning coal for power by 2025 has seen its use fall to almost nothing in 2019 and led several operators to announce closures. RWE AG is to close its Aberthaw power station in March and SSE Plc is to shut Fiddler’s Ferry next year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Andrew Reierson, Lars Paulsson

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