Net zero: The UK is building its last big gas power plant

Keadby 2 gas power station

The Keadby 2 gas power station in Lincolnshire, UK

david soulsby/Alamy

Climb the stairs to the roof of the cooling tower at Keadby 2, a new gas power plant in the east of England, and you are rewarded with a story of the UK’s energy past, present and possible future.

Straight ahead is a mound built from the ash of a coal plant that closed in 1984, a fuel the UK has now almost entirely ditched. Behind stands an array of 34 fast-spinning turbines, England’s biggest onshore wind farm. Off the …