This past weekend (6-7 June) in the UK has seen highly windy conditions, coupled with sunshine, leading to a huge contribution of renewable energy to the energy mix.
At around 2pm on Saturday, 43% of the UK's electricity was supplied by renewable energy, a record breaking amount.
Weekend levels of demand on the energy mix also meant that, when combined with the green energy contribution, fossil fuel-supplied energy dropped to a low of 26% contribution in the early afternoon of Saturday.
The remainder was made up of nuclear, imports and power from the UK's energy storage reservoirs in North Wales and Scotland.
Coal was said to be as low as 7% of the energy supply, meaning a push for more green technology could see coal being eliminated from energy providers entirely in the opinion of some commentators such as Chris Goodall, writing in The Ecologist.
Cedrec's take
This is brilliant news coming from the energy sector, with a great message to encourage green technology investment. There are some issues however, that should be addressed.
Firstly, last weekend saw conditions that we typically do not experience every day, or even every weekend. It was highly windy, and therefore our windfarms were able to produce more. This is not a certain every weekend, therefore investment should be made into efficient windfarms, and other sources of renewable energy, such as tidal and solar.
Furthermore, we relied on other sources of energy also, including imports, reservoir stores and nuclear. Imports will inflate our use of fossil fuels altogether, due to the likelihood it is imported gas and oil. The stores have been built up from a further mix of fossil fuels and renewables, pushing our fossil number up further, and finally nuclear energy is a dividing subject for green energy advocates, with some discouraging the use of nuclear, and those suggesting we embrace it even more.
Regardless of these issues, the achievement is still something to be proud of and does show positive moves forward. Let's hope more investment is made, in order to leave a smaller impact on the planet.
