Renewables surpass coal in Britain’s Q2 electricity generation

In total, renewable electricity generation rose by more than 50% year-on-year, but the industry has warned that the gains were likely to be short-lived without continued government support.

However, the new data shows that higher wind speeds, more sun hours and the increase of turbines and solar panels have contributed for renewable energy to be the second highest electricity source in 2015.

Gas-fired power stations provided the most electricity – 30% – with renewables second.

This was up from 16.7 per cent for the same period in 2014 and saw renewables overtake coal for the first time, which fell to generating just 20.5 per cent of the UK’s power in the same period, with the conversion of a second unit of coal-fired power station Drax, North Yorkshire, to biomass contributing.

The Scottish Government’s target of reducing energy consumption by 12% by 2020 is already at the required level in 2013 – down by 13.3% from the 2005-2007 baseline, Mr Ewing said.

As the transition to clean electricity continues apace, we’d welcome clearer signals from Government that it’s backing the installation of vital new projects.

“Scotland has made great progress in increasing the amount of clean, green electricity in our energy mix”.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the record share of renewable generation reflected not only more renewable capacity, such as the construction of big new offshore wind farms, but also “more favourable weather conditions for renewable generation”.

“If they are going to pursue this policy there should be a sufficiently flexible grace period covering projects already in the planning system”.

Juliet Davenport, chief executive of renewable energy company Good Energy, said: “Yet again renewables are really proving their worth”.

“These changes to the Renewable Obligation, together with the disappointing retroactive removal of Levy Exemption Certificates for renewable energy generators and removal of support for large scale solar schemes, is impacting the industry’s cost of capital and is additionally creating some difficulty in securing long term finance for certain projects, at least until the legislation has reached Royal Assent”, it said.

But although on the surface these statistics appear to be promising, according to projections from the European Commision, the United Kingdom continues to be one of the lowest ranking countries in the European Union when it comes to the percentage of energy consumed that is produced by renewables.