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More Electricity Generated by Renewables Than Fossil Fuels for First Time

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Renewable energy sources generated more electricity for Britain than fossil fuels for the time ever last quarter, in a milestone for the green energy transition.

The share of electricity generated by wind farms, solar panels, and biomass plants reached 40% in the period between July and September this year, boosted by a series of new offshore wind farms.

Comparatively, coal and gas-fired plants contributed 39%, eclipsed as the main contributor to electricity generation for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.

The contributions of renewables in the third quarter confirms that National Grid’s prediction that 2019 will be the first year that zero-carbon electricity—that generated by renewables and nuclear—surpasses electricity from fossil fuels. Nuclear plants contributed around a fifth of all electricity over the summer.

Coal- and gas-fired plants generated 80% of the UK’s electricity just a decade ago, but coal’s contribution has dropped to less than 1%, as coal plants have shuttered. With the closure of EDF’s Cottam Power Station at the beginning of the month, there are now just six remaining coal-fired  power stations in the Britain. That will dwindle to just by next spring and all coal powers stations are expected to be mothballed by 2025.

Gas continues to make a substantial contribution to the UK’s energy mix, with gas-fired plants generating 38% of electricity. Gas also heats 85% of the UK’s homes.

However, renewables’ share of electricity generation has exploded, with the largest contributions made by wind power. Wind farms generated 20% of the UK’s energy last quarter, following the opening of several large offshore farms over the last year, including the Hornsea One project, the largest wind installation in the world, and the Beatrice wind farm in Scotland. Biomass plants contributed another 12% of the UK’s power and solar panels generated 6%.

Luke Clark, of trade body Renewable UK said that the industry hopes to treble offshore wind capacity by 2030, to generate more than a third of the UK’s electricity.

Labour, meanwhile, has pledged to increase offshore wind capacity five-fold, with the creation of 37 new wind farms, as part of its Green Industrial Revolution.

Increased reliance on renewables is good news both for the climate and for bill-payers, Clark said.

“The cost of new offshore wind projects, for example, has just fallen to an all-time low, making onshore and offshore wind our lowest-cost large scale power sources,” he said.

New offshore wind farms cost around £40 per megawatt hour of electricity generated, less than the average price for electricity on the wholesale market.

Kwasi Kwarteng, minister for energy and clean growth, said the record contribution from renewables is “yet another milestone on our path towards ending our contribution to climate change altogether by 2050.”

“Already, we’ve cut emissions by 40% while growing the economy by two thirds since 1990. Now, with more offshore wind projects on the way at record low prices we plan to go even further and faster in the years to come.”

Lauren Smith
Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for most of the last decade, covering technology, energy, and consumer rights, in the US and UK.

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