UK hits clean energy milestone: 50% of electricity from low carbon sources

Half of the UK’s electricity came from wind turbines, solar panels, wood burning and nuclear reactors between July and September, in a milestone first.

Official figures published on Thursday show low carbon power, which has been supported by the government to meet climate change targets, accounted for 50% of electricity generation in the UK in the third quarter, up from 45.3% the year before.

The rise was largely driven by new windfarms and solar farms being connected to the grid, and several major coal power stations closing.

In Scotland, the share of low carbon power is even greater, and now stands at 77% of electricity generation. A record 29% of Scotland’s electricity was exported, with almost all of it going to England.

The renewables and nuclear industry said the figures for Scotland were “fantastic” and demonstrated how carbon emissions could be cut while maintaining security of supply.

Scotland’s last coal power station closed in the spring, and coal plants in West Yorkshire and Staffordshire were shuttered. That caused coal power’s share of generation to plummet by more than three quarters, down from 16.7% in Q3 2015 to just 3.6% in the same period this year.

Environmental measures have made coal power increasingly uneconomic in the UK, and ministers have promised to phase it out entirely by 2025 at the latest.

Despite a recent rise in wholesale prices, which were blamed for one small energy supplier going bust last month, the average household energy bill was down 4.6% in 2016, to £1,237.

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We have made a firm commitment to reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, and these statistics show that we are doing exactly that.”