Half of the UK’s electricity was generated by renewable and nuclear energy in the last quarter of 2016 according to the latest figures from the Dept. for Business and Energy.
And, compared to the same period in 2015, production of electricity from coal-fired power stations collapsed from 16.7% to 3.6% as operators raced to shut down capacity (see chart).
The key results show:
In 2016 Q3, total electricity generated fell by 1.2 per cent, from 76.4 TWh a year earlier to 75.4 TWh.
Low carbon electricity’s share of generation increased from 45.3 per cent to a record high 50 per cent, due to increased generation from renewables and nuclear.
Renewables’ share of electricity generation was 25 per cent in 2016 Q3, up 1.3 percentage points on the share in 2015 Q3.
Coal’s share of generation decreased from 16.7 per cent to 3.6 per cent, whilst gas’ share of generation increased from 34.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2015 to 43.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2016.
Nuclear’s share of generation rose from 21.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2015 to 25.0 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 following outages in 2015.
The UK remains a net importer with 6.2 per cent of electricity supplied from net imports in the third quarter of 2016.
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