UK government statistics show that renewable electricity generation outperformed fossil fuels for the first year ever in 2020, providing 43% of the country’s electricity.
Fossil fuels generated 38.5%, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Energy Trends report.
Onshore and offshore wind provided more than half of the UK’s renewable power in 2020 by generating 24.2% of the UK’s electricity needs (13% from offshore wind and 11.2% from onshore wind).
Low carbon sources (renewables and nuclear) generated 59%.
The report highlighted that renewable generation has increased year on year and the latest annual record was driven mainly by high levels of generation from wind which increased by 18% compared to 2019.
RenewableUK deputy chief executive Melanie Onn said: “Today’s record-breaking figures, set despite the pandemic, show that renewables are keeping this country reliably powered up during the most challenging period any of us have faced for many decades.”
In total, renewable capacity grew by just 2% during 2020, the lowest growth rate since at least 2010, compared with an average growth of almost 20% during the preceding 10 years.
Some quarters saw no added capacity for certain technologies; in Q2, there was no increase for onshore wind and bioenergy and in quarters three and four there was no new offshore wind capacity, which had previously seen large increases.
New Solar PV capacity also slowed in 2020, with 217MW being added in 2020 compared with 273MW in 2019.
BEIS also released statistics covering the final three months of 2020, showing that wind generated 24.9% of UK electricity in Q4 (14.1% offshore and 10.8% onshore).
Renewables overall provided 40.5% in this period.