After renewable energy became the UK's largest source of electricity, the proportion of fossil fuels that make up the UK's power generation mix has dropped to a record low.
Government figures show the UK's reliance on coal is decreasing as the reliance on renewables increases. In the third quarter of this year, 38.9% of the electricity used was generated by renewable power, up from the previous year. Whilst it is progress gas-fired power use was only 0.1% behind that of renewables. If we are to push renewable energy more securely into its place as the UK's biggest source of power, there will need to be a consistent and continued charge in the same direction.
The rise of renewables, combined with the use of nuclear power plants, has moved fossil fuels to their lowest share of the UK's energy mix on record. Coal-fired power stations contributed only 1% to the generation of the UK's electricity in the third quarter.
The report has said the UK's growing fleet of offshore wind projects has managed to generate more electricity than onshore windfarms for the first time. The giant turbines generated 9.8% of the UK's electricity, an increase from last years 6.7%. Whilst onshore windfarms lagged slightly behind - only generating 9.2% of the UK's electricity in the third quarter - they were also still up from the results of the previous year.
Since the record-breaking quarter, wind power reached fresh highs earlier this month, succeeding on one day in generating almost 45% of the UK's electricity. This meant thousands of homes were paid to make use of the extra energy, and were instructed to plug in their electric vehicles overnight and set their dishwasher cycles to start in the early hours of the morning to accommodate for this.
