A brief history of the rise and fall of coal in the UK, and also a timeline of UK power generation, by @RobinMcKie.

- First large-scale use of coal
- First civil nuclear power plant
- Now leading the world in offshore wind

What a journey! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/09/is-this-the-end-for-king-coal-in-britain

The article made me realise how I can connect a segment of my family history through different stages of the UK's energy journey.

I'm sure many others can too given the importance of energy, but also because of the diversity of energy sources and politics surrounding them.

Coal was part of the landscape of my childhood - politically with the miners strikes, but also literally.

My grandparents lived in Nottingham in a region with a number of collieries. I remember the heaps of coal waste near to their home.

https://www.nmrs.org.uk 

I believe the ones in their neigbourhood have now been landscaped to form a country park. But I've not been back for some time, and I can't find anything about the history of how the area developed over the 30 years since I was last there.

http://www.wildlifeinthecity.org/green-space/Broxtowe-country-park/

My Dad spent this career as a civil engineer. One of his first jobs out of university in the mid-60s was with the company constructing Dungeness nuclear power station on the south coast of England.

In the mid-2000s I worked as a @cefasuk marine researcher, assessing the environmental impacts of offshore windfarms in the initial rounds of development of the sector.

I had no idea then that the UK was a on path to lead the world in offshore wind.

https://www.irena.org/Statistics/View-Data-by-Topic/Capacity-and-Generation/Country-Rankings

What will the UK's energy mix look like in 2050 when my kids reach my age?