Government statistics released this week confirm that UK renewable electricity generation in 2014 was 64.4 terawatt-hours (TWh), up by one-fifth on 2013 (53.7 TWh).
Total renewable electricity installed capacity at the end of 2014 was officially 24.2 gigawatts (GW), a 23% increase on the year, now accounting for more than one quarter of all UK generating capacity.
The graph above shows the broad spread of renewable generation technologies. Below is a summary breakdown of renewable electricity production across Britain in 2014:
- wind (onshore + offshore) 31.6 TWh (9.4% of total UK power generation)
- hydro 5.9 TWh (1.8%)
- solar 3.9 TWh (1.2%)
- bioenergy 22.9 TWh (6.8%)
Figures also released this week on liquid transport biofuels show that they represented 3.9 per cent of petrol and diesel consumed in road transport in 2014, up from 3.5% in 2013 (0.81 billion litres of bioethanol and 0.96 bn litres of biodiesel).
Renewables’ share of electricity generation increased even further to a new record of 22.0% in the fourth quarter of 2014 (October to December).
For more details, see the DECC statistical press release and Energy Trends report.