Renewables account for record share of UK electricity in Q3 2019

By Erin Voegele | January 21, 2020

The U.K. recently released third quarter 2019 energy statistics, reporting the renewables share of electricity generation reached a record 38.9 percent during the quarter, up from 32.9 percent during the same period of 2018. For the first time, the share of generation from renewables surpassed that from natural gas, which was at 38.8 percent.

Total U.K. energy production fell by 1.8 percent during the third quarter when compared to the same period of 2018. Primary energy consumption for energy uses fell by 2.7 percent to a record quarterly low. Final energy consumption fell by 1.5 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2018.

The share of low carbon electricity generation reached a record high of 57.3 percent, up 55.9 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2018. The increase was attributed to increased renewables generation.

Renewable electricity capacity increased, reaching 46.9 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the third quarter, a 7.2 percent increase when compared to the same period of 2018. Bioenergy capacity remained relatively flat between the third quarter of 2018 and the same period of 2019. The U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said small additions in plant biomass capacity during the period were largely offset by reductions in anaerobic digestion capacity.

Total renewable electricity generation reached 28.8 terawatt hours (TWh) in the third quarter, up 16 percent from the same period of 2018. Generation from bioenergy reached 8.9 TWh, up 1.9 percent. Generation from onshore wind, offshore wind, and hydro were also up, while generation from solar photovoltaics fell by 2.8 percent. For plant biomass, the load factor was 60.3 percent during the quarter, down 4.6 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2018. The BEIS said generation was affected by an outage at a large plant biomass unit.

Bioenergy accounted 12 percent of U.K. electricity generation during the third quarter of 2019, up from 11.6 percent during the same quarter of 2018.