Low carbon sources provides over 50 per cent of UK electricity

• 7 years ago (2016-11-14)
• David Flin

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Research from the energy company Drax, which operates a biomass power station in the UK, has found that electricity from low-emission sources had supplied 50.2 per cent of UK supply between July and September. This follows an announcement by the UK Government that it plans to see Britain’s coal-fired power stations close by 2025.

Drax, in collaboration with Imperial College London, has launched a new quarterly report on trends in the UK energy market. The first edition of the report showed that in the last quarter, more than half of the UK’s electricity was generated from low-carbon sources, including UK nuclear, imported French nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind, and solar.

The report said: “Britain’s electricity was completely coal-free for nearly six days over the last quarter. Coal plants have been pushed off the system by competition from gas, nuclear, and renewables. 5 May 2016 was an historic day, the first time since 1881 that Britain burnt no coal to produce its electricity. Far from being a one-off, this has continued to be the norm over the summer.”

Nuclear provided 26 per cent of UK’s electricity generation in the third quarter of 2016, and renewables provided 20 per cent. Britain now has over 26 GW of wind and solar installed, a six-fold increase on six years ago, while biomass has increased from nothing to 2 GW.

Britain imported seven per cent of its electricity in the quarter, three-fifths coming from France, and the remainder from the Netherlands and Ireland.

The share of low-emission electricity in the UK has risen gradually from 20 per cent in 2010. While electricity from high-carbon generation is expected to rise again during the high-demand winter months, the overall trend is clear.

The UK Government said last week that Britain’s eight remaining unabated coal power stations will be closed by 2025 unless they can halve their carbon emissions. The Government said that it wanted to see an orderly transition away from unabated coal generation, and launched a consultation on achieving this, which will close in February.