Electricity generation from renewable sources increased by 20 % during 2012 as compared to the previous year and accounted for 11% of all the electricity generated in the year.
The rise is mainly due to increases in generation from on shore and offshore wind. Critically, government data show the load factor for off shore wind was 33.7% as compared to 30.4% from gas. This proves the reliability of wind is not the issue that its detractors would have people believe.
Breaking down the data further shows a 27% increase in installed renewable electricity generating capacity, a 27% increase in on-shore wind capacity, 63% increase in off-shore wind capacity and 71% increase in photovoltaic (solar) capacity. Primary energy capacity fell by 10.7% with further declines in oil and gas production.
Taken together, the data appears to be evidence renewables are replacing fossil fuels in the UK, albeit not as quickly as we would like or need.
As Dorset Energized reported last month, only 1% of Dorset’s total energy demand currently comes from renewables – this is a third of the UK national average so to play our part in meeting national renewable energy targets, generation needs to increase by over 15 times in just 8 years.
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