Despite coal plants shutting down in the UK, it was one of the main sources of electricity towards the end of 2014.

New statistics released by the UK Government show the increase in wholesale gas prices and nuclear outages meant generators switched back to coal.

It provided 34.6% of electricity generation while gas stood at 33.8%. Nuclear was also down 27% from the previous year due to outages at two EDF power stations, the report found.

However the closure of some of the UK’s coal plants meant the share of energy from coal fell by 43% compared to the previous year.

The figures are the latest energy trends released by DECC for the three-month period from September 2014 to November 2014.