{"id":581,"date":"2020-10-15T15:30:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reports.electricinsights.uk\/?p=581"},"modified":"2021-03-05T14:06:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:06:28","slug":"britains-continuing-decarbonisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.electricinsights.co.uk\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s continuing decarbonisation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Q1 carbon emissions from electricity generation are down 10% on last year and 33% on the year before.<\/strong> As a sign of just how far British electricity has changed, the \u2018dirtiest hour\u2019 in the whole of this winter was lower carbon than the average generation mix just 3 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The carbon intensity of electricity averaged 284 g\/kWh this quarter. It ranged from just 102 g\/kWh on a windy Sunday night in March to 424 g\/kWh on a cold and calm January evening when coal output was high. 424 grams of CO2 would have seemed clean just a few years ago: the average from 2009 to 2013 was 471 g\/kWh. Now it is the extremity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2013, the carbon intensity of electricity has fallen by 66 g\/kWh each year. The reason for this is clear in the chart below: coal stands out as by far the highest-carbon source of electricity, but coal output has fallen 82% in the last four years. The 21st of April marked the first day since 1882 that Britain burnt no coal at all for electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal has been replaced by mid-carbon gas, low-carbon biomass and imports, and zero-carbon wind and solar. Together these have driven electricity decarbonisation in line with (or even slightly ahead of) the country\u2019s decarbonisation targets \u2013 which are the most ambitious in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left: The carbon content per unit of electricity consumed in Britain, showing the average and range in each quarter.<\/em> 
Right: The average carbon intensity from each generation source.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q1 carbon emissions from electricity generation are down 10% on last year and 33% on the year before. As a sign of just how far British electricity has changed, the \u2018dirtiest hour\u2019 in the whole of this winter was lower carbon than the average generation mix just 3 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-q1-2017"],"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