New statistics published by the UK government confirm that renewable energy accounted for over half of the UK’s total electricity generation for the first time last year, generating a record annual percentage of the country’s electricity in 2024, and outstripping fossil fuels for the fourth time in five years. Onshore and offshore wind generated their highest ever annual percentages of electricity.
Renewables provided 50.4% in 2024, up from 46.4% in 2023, compared to 31.8% from fossil fuels, mainly gas (down from 36.7% in 2023). They generated a new high of 143.7 TWh in the year, overtaking the previous record of 135.8TWh set in 2023. Fossil fuels continued to decline and produced 90.5 TWh in 2024.
The Digest of UK Energy Statistics, published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), states that the rise is owing to increases in offshore wind and solar generation capacity. The annual report also notes that the share of generation from low carbon sources (renewables and nuclear) rose to a record 64.7% in 2024 (184.3TWh), up from 60.3% in 2023. Wind remains the UK’s largest source of clean power, generating a record 29.2% of the country’s electricity in 2024 (a new high of 83.3TWh), beating the previous record of 28.1% (82.3TWh) in 2023. Wind provided 58% of all renewable electricity last year. A record 17% was produced by offshore wind (48.5TWh) beating the 2023 figure of 16.9%, while onshore wind provided a record 12.2% (34.7TWh) compared to 11.1% in 2023. Solar provided 5% (14.4TWh) and nuclear 14.25% (40.6TWh) of the UK’s electricity in 2024.
Coal produced a total of 1.6 TWh. There was no coal-fired generation in Q4 of 2024 – the last coal-fired power plant (Ratcliffe-on-Soar) closed on 30th Sept 2024.
