New Record Set for Renewable Energy Use in the UK

Renewables accounted for 47% of Great Britain's electricity in the first quarter of 2020. The previous record of 39% was set last year. A 33% increase in wind and solar power since 2019 contributed to the surge in renewable energy generation. Wind power made up 30 of the 47% generated by renewables between January and March this year, a rise of 7.7% compared to the previous wind power record. The high use of renewables and nuclear energy also helped set a new record low for fossil fuel generated power in the first quarter of 2020.

Apart from renewables, gas accounted for 31.4% of the UK's energy consumption in the first quarter of the year, while nuclear made up 15.1%, followed by coal at 3.8% and finally, petroleum and other sources at 2.7%. The renewable energy was generated by wind farms, solar panels, hydro power plants and bioenergy from burning wood chips. Bioenergy, however, is not a clean renewable source, as it has a large carbon footprint. The high use of gas is also problematic because of its high carbon footprint, but in better news, it decreased by 8.6% compared to the first quarter of 2019.