2013/14 Statistics
The Conservative party’s energy bête noire has driven a 48% increase in the share of renewable energy in the UK’s generation mix. Those are the findings of the 2013/14 Fuel Mix Disclosure.
The latest instalment in DECC’s Fuel Mix statistics showed that in 2013/14 there was a 27% increase in onshore wind capacity, a 23% increase in offshore wind capacity and a 59% increase in solar photovoltaic capacity.
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, said:
“Renewable electricity has more than doubled in just four years – with around 15 per cent of Britain’s electricity already coming from clean renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro”
Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats holds a far more supporting view of onshore wind than his Conservative peers in the Coalition government and as a result his pronouncement will be more proudly felt than in some quarters.
Behind the renewable energy headlines however the dominance of gas and coal to the nation’s energy usage continued.
Although gas’s contribution fell from 27.7% in 2012/13 to 25.6% over the latest period it still claimed second place, whilst coal (also falling) retained its leading position in the table at 34.0% compared to 38.4% a year earlier.
Nuclear energy contributed 21.6% up from 20.6% in the previous year whilst other sources equated for the balance of 2.1% (marginally higher than their 2.0% contribution of a year earlier).
| Source | 2013/14 | 2012/13 | Change |
| Coal | 34.0% | 38.4% | -4.4% |
| Gas | 25.6% | 27.7% | -2.1% |
| Nuclear | 21.6% | 20.6% | +1.0% |
| Renewable | 16.7% | 11.3% | +5.4% |
| Other | 2.1% | 2.0% | +0.1% |
The director of policy for renewables lobby group Renewable UK Gordon Edge said:
“This abundance of excellent statistics should make those in Government who have failed to support wind energy sit up and take notice. More than half of Britain’s clean electricity now comes from onshore and offshore wind. We’re now on course to hit 10% of electricity from wind alone this year.”
Few will be celebrating less enthusiastically than the Conservative administration.
For now though the wait is on for the individual fuel mix’s of the UKs electricity suppliers to establish each business’ profile of generation sources. As ever we will provide a breakdown of each supplier’s contribution in our dedicated supplier pages as well as our handy Fuel Mix Comparison guide. Until these figures are officially released later this summer you can analyse the 2012/13 results when making decisions about the ‘green’ status or otherwise of your energy supplier.
To find out more about Fuel Mix visit our guide and Fuel Mix Comparison Tables.