IN 1882, the world's first coal-powered electricity began flowing from a small London station designed by inventor Thomas Edison. Two weeks ago, Britain's last remaining coal power plant, the Ratcliffe power station in Nottinghamshire, generated its final unit of energy — meaning that coal will no longer be used for electricity in Britain. I grew up in the Scottish golf county of East Lothian, whose coastline was dominated by the stacks of a local coal power station.
