{"id":553,"date":"2020-10-15T15:56:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reports.electricinsights.uk\/?p=553"},"modified":"2021-03-05T14:02:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:02:59","slug":"renewables-low-carbon-hit-new-highs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.electricinsights.co.uk\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"Renewables & low carbon hit new highs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean electricity sources are once again breaking records in Britain.<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Renewables powered more than a quarter of demand between April and June, as shown in the figure below-left. Output from all low-carbon sources (including nuclear and imports from France) met 56% of demand over the quarter, a tenth higher than the previous high reported in our first issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Wind, solar, biomass and hydro peaked at a 51.5% share of demand on June 7th at 1 PM, with a combined output of 19.1 GW. At the same time, the output from all low-carbon sources hit a new record of 28.6 GW, meeting 89% of demand. The figure below-right shows the generation mix during that week: on the Sunday afternoon wind and solar each produced more electricity than all fossil fuels combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For comparison, Germany hit a new record of 85% renewable electricity<\/a> for an hour in May, showing that we can go further still. With more than 6 GW of wind capacity currently under construction1<\/a><\/sup> and plans to convert more of Britain\u2019s coal units to biomass<\/a>2<\/a><\/sup>, it is likely these records will continue to be broken in the months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left: share of electricity generation from renewables averaged over each quarter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right: generation mix surrounding the weekend with the highest share of lowest-carbon electricity<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Authors:<\/em> Dr Iain Staffell<\/a>, Professor Richard Green<\/a>, Dr Rob Gross<\/a> and Professor Tim Green<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Of this, 3.6 GW is offshore (Hornsea 1&2, Race Bank, Dudgeon, Rampion, Galloper and Walney 1&2) and 2.5 GW is onshore, primarily in Scotland and Wales (Kilgallioch, Pen y Cymoedd, Clyde Extension, Muaitheabhal and Bhlaraidh are each over 100 MW). \u21a9<\/a><\/li>
  2. Drax Unit 4 and Lynemouth are under consideration, totalling 1.1 GW. \u21a9<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Clean electricity sources are once again breaking records in Britain. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-q2-2017"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t