It’s good to see that electricity production generated from fossil fuels reached its lowest point since the pandemic according to a report by Imperial College London.
Wind capacity in June reached 27.9GW in June, overtaking the 27.7GW installed capacity of gas. It is the first time in more than a century that the UK has more installed wind capacity than gas generation.
In the first quarter of this year, power from wind turbines took over from gas as the country’s main source of electricity – the first time in more than a century that fossil fuels have not been our biggest source of power.
A windy January mean that between January and March, wind supplied 32.4% of the UK’s electricity, gas supplied 31.7%.
The report said: “Only 10 years ago, wind was in fifth place. But since then, we’ve seen a fourfold increase in its power output. Massive increases in capacity (a rise of 3GW or 14% in the last year alone) and mild weather compared with a year earlier combined to put wind into first place.
“It’s expected that wind will continue to provide the lion’s share of our electricity in the coming winters too, while fossil fuels retreat into roles where they’re mainly used to provide system stability. These are expected to be made emissions free by carbon capture or eventually replaced by new clean technology. One thing’s certain: the electricity generation mix in Britain is changing for good.”
