Record high for renewables share in UK’s power generation

• 5 years ago (2018-09-28)
• David Flin

Europe 1068 Offshore wind 119 Renewables 757

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UK Government figures released on 27 September show that the share of renewables in the UK’s electricity generation recorded a record high for the second quarter of 2018, while the share of coal hit a record low. Figures from the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy in its UK Energy Statistics for Q2 2018 said that the share of renewables for Q2 reached 31.7 per cent, while coal fell to 1.6 per cent.

The figures also showed that in Q2, gas accounted for 42.0 per cent, and nuclear power generation accounted for 21.7 per cent of total generation. According to MyGridGB tracker, for 2018 up until 27th September, Britain has spent 1599 hours without coal-fired electricity. This is a significant increase on 233 hours without coal in 2016, and 624 without coal in 2017.

Renewable electricity generation increased by 3 per cent year-on-year to stand at 24.3 TWh in Q2. Renewable electricity capacity in the UK was 42.2 GW at the end of June 2018, up by 10 per cent from the end of June 2017. Over half of the annual capacity increase came from offshore wind.