Renewable energy production surpasses fossil fuels in 2020
Renewable energy sources surpassed fossil fuel energy production in the UK for the first time ever in 2020, led by wind power generation.
According to analysis by think tank Ember, renewable sources provided 42 per cent of the UK’s energy, while fossil fuel sources like gas produced 41 per cent.
The remaining 17 per cent was produced by nuclear sources, the report said.
Wind power was the main source of renewable generation, contributing 24 per cent of all energy produced last year.
That’s double the amount of power produced by wind in 2015, and a 4.0 per cent jump year-on-year.
Coal power, which is due to be phased out for good in 2024, fell to just 2.0 per cent of the UK’s energy mix.
Gas remains the UK’s single largest power source, providing 37 per cent of all electricity in 2020.
However, due to a year of lower energy demand due to coronavirus, it ceded about 4.5 per cent of its share in the total production matrix to wind.
In December the Committee for Climate Change (CCC), the government’s leading environmental advisers, recommended that officials target a phase-out of gas power by 2035.
That follows plans by ministers to install a total of 40 gigawatts of wind power capacity in the UK by the end of this decade.