Renewables made up a 43.1% share of UK power generation in 2020, generating more electricity than fossil fuels in the year.
This is the first time renewables have beat fossil fuels since the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) began publishing its Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES).
Renewables’ share of the generation mix rose by 6.2 percentage points compared to 2019, with all renewable technologies – which includes bioenergy – seeing increases in generation shares in 2020.
The largest of these was wind, which provided 24% of total power generation in 2020.
Renewables generated 134.6TWh in 2020, a 12.6% increase compared to 2019 and more than the 117.8TWh generated from fossil fuels.
The high renewable generation was largely driven by increased wind generation, which was up 18% compared to 2019 to 75.4TWh. Offshore wind in particular had a strong year, generating 27% more electricity in 2020 compared to 2019 as a result of favourable conditions and increased capacity.
Wind set a new generation record in 2020 when Storm Francis pushed wind power to produce 59.9% of the country’s electricity at 1.30am on 26 August, producing 14.2GW. This was then broken again in May 2021 when wind generated 17.7GW between 3.30-4:30pm.
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