Britain goes green

A new study claims that more than half of the UK’s electricity comes from low-carbon source for the first time ever.

Following a government announcement of intentions to close Britain’s coal-fueled power stations by 2025, Drax, an energy company which operates a biomass power station, reported that electricity from low-emission sources had peaked at 50.2 per cent between July and September of this year.

In a new quarterly report on trends in the UK energy market launched in collaboration with Imperial College, London, Drax revealed that more than half of the UK’s electricity was fueled by low-carbon sources including UK nuclear, imported French nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind and solar.

According to the report “Britain’s electricity was completely coal-free for nearly six days over the last quarter. Coal plants have been pushed off the system by competition from gas, nuclear and renewables.  5 May 2016 was a historic day, the first time since 1881 that Britain burnt no coal to produce its electricity. Far from being a one-off, this has continued to become the norm over summer.”

Though electricity from high-carbon generation is expected to rise again during the winter when energy demand is high, experts believe the overall trend is clear, with a low-emission electricity share that has increased steadily from a mere 20 per cent in 2010.

In view of green energy accounting for more than half of the new electricity capacity for the first time, the International Energy Agency hailed last year as a “turning point” for the planet.

Source: Independent