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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
The UK’s electricity was the cleanest ever in 2024, according to a new study from Carbon Brief, with CO2 emissions per unit falling by more than two-thirds in a decade. The phasing out of coal means the country is now getting less than half as much electricity from burning fossil fuels as a decade ago. Over the same period, renewable generation has more than doubled.
The analysis shows that in total, fossil fuels made up just 29% of the UK’s electricity in 2024 – the lowest level on record – while nuclear contributed 13% and renewables reached a record-high 45%. As a result, each unit of electricity generated in 2024 was associated with an average of just 124 grammes of CO2, compared with a carbon intensity of 419 gCO2/kWh in 2014.
Other key insights from the data include:
- Last year, the UK generated just 91 TWh of electricity from fossil fuels, down from 203 TWh in 2014 (–55%). It was mainly gas, as coal was phased out completely following the closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire at the end of September 2024.
- Renewable sources more than doubled from 65 TWh in 2014 to 143 TWh in 2024 (+122%). Combined with falls for coal and gas, this means that renewables now generate significantly (57%) more electricity in the UK than fossil fuels.
- Gas-fired power stations remained the UK’s single-largest source of electricity in 2024, generating some 88 TWh (28%), just ahead of wind at 84 TWh (26%).
- The remaining sources of electricity in 2024 were nuclear (41 TWh, 13%), biomass (40 TWh, 13%), imports (33 TWh, 11%) and solar (14 TWh, 4%).
- Some 58% of electricity – or 64% excluding imports – came from clean sources. Both are records, but a long way off the government’s target of at least 95% clean power by 2030. [The government recently published a Clean Power Action Plan setting out the key reforms it will enact to deliver this 2030 grid decarbonisation target.]
- The emissions associated with UK electricity supplies has fallen from 150mn tCO2 in 2014 to below 40mn tCO2 in 2024, down 74%.
- The reduction in the carbon intensity of electricity means that an electric vehicle now has lifecycle CO2 savings of 70% over a petrol car, up from only 50% in 2014.
- Similarly, a household using a heat pump instead of a gas boiler is now cutting its heat-related CO2 emissions by 84%/y, rather than only 45% in 2014.
According to Carbon Brief’s analysis, wind has seen the largest increase of any power source in the UK over the past decade, and is expected to form the backbone of the nation’s electricity system by 2030. However, it also reports that the rise in wind power output has levelled off over the past two years as very little new wind capacity has been added.
In 2022, the UK added 3.5 GW of new wind capacity, including 3.2 GW of offshore wind. This dropped to 1.6 GW in 2023, of which 1.1 GW came from the Seagreen offshore wind farm off the coast of Scotland, which is currently Scotland’s largest and the third-largest in the UK. However, no new offshore wind farms were added in 2024 and only 0.7 GW of new onshore capacity was built, mainly the 0.4 GW Viking project in the Shetland Islands. A further reason for the levelling off in wind power output is that wind speeds have been below average for the past two years, notes Carbon Brief.
Nevertheless, a new record for wind generation was hit on 19 December 2024, with output reaching 22.5 GW for the first time, according to the UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO).
Carbon Brief notes that although NESO’s figures show wind having generated more electricity than gas in 2024, these numbers exclude significant amounts of gas generation, particularly from combined heat and power units at industrial sites. When accounting for all plants burning gas for power in the UK, Carbon Brief reports the fuel ‘remained as the single-largest source of electricity in 2024, slightly ahead of wind’.
But it also adds that: ‘Increasing wind power capacity as new projects are completed in the coming months – and below-average wind speeds in 2024 – mean wind is likely to generate more electricity than gas in 2025.’
Several large new offshore wind farms are under construction and due to open in the next few years, including Dogger Bank A, a 1.2 GW development in the North Sea, and the 0.9 GW Moray West and 0.5 GW Neart na Goithe wind farms off Scotland, due to be commissioned in 2025. These will be followed by the 1.2 GW Dogger Bank B and 1.4 GW Sofia wind farms in 2026, also in the mid-North Sea region.
Historic level of renewable energy procurement needed to meet UK’s 2030 clean power target
In related news, the UK’s renewable energy auctions in 2024 and 2025 need to procure up to 52 GW if the UK’s clean power by 2030 target is to be achieved, according to the latest analysis from Cornwall Insight.
It says that the two auctions combined need to deliver up to 20 GW of offshore wind, 7–8 GW of onshore wind, and 23–24 GW of solar PV. Combined, they total more than double 2024’s auction total for onshore wind, offshore wind and solar, which itself set a record for capacity. The analysis also notes, however, there may also be some limitations in commissioning by 2030 solar and wind projects procured in 2027.
