Low-carbon energy generation reaches record levels

New figures are showing that low-carbon electricity hit record new levels in 2014, despite a number of nuclear outages.

A total of 38.3% of all power came from low-carbon source last year, up from 34.6% in 2013, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change figures.

Low-carbon energy sources in the UK include nuclear power alongside renewables like wind, solar, biomass and hydro.

Growth in renewables

Last year saw a number of power outages at nuclear plants, which led to a 9.7% drop in power from these sources. However, the growth in renewable energies helped offset this fall.


Overall, renewable electricity generation hit a record high of 19.2%, up from 14.9% in 2013.

Wind and solar rose by 16.6% thanks to more capacity becoming available. Hydro rose by 26% as a result of heavier rainfall in 2014.

Drop in coal

Of the traditional sources, there was a divide between coal and gas.

Gas’s share of power generation rose from 26.6% to 30.2%. This was partly down to the fact that there were lower wholesale gas prices in the summer boosting demand.

The rise in gas generation also helped meet the shortfall caused by nuclear outages.

However, coal’s share dropped from 36.4% to 29.1%, putting its generation levels at a record low – and below low-carbon sources.


The drop was down to plant closures and the conversion of a second unit at Drax Power Station from coal to biomass.

Overall, final consumption of electricity in 2014 across the country was 4.3% lower than in 2013. This was the lowest level in the last 17 years.

Domestic consumption fell by 5.5%, partly due to a warmer winter. In fact, temperatures on average in 2014 were over a degree higher than in 2013.

Industrial use of electricity fell 6.3% while consumption by commercial and other users dropped by 1%.

Andrew Crowther, energy analyst at Strutt & Parker said: “The new figures release by the Government show that despite a changing global and political landscape, the renewable and low carbon industries are still strong.

"The UK is however still lagging behind in comparison to European countries where renewables alone can regularly provide around 30% of the total energy supply.

"If the UK is to meet the EU Energy and climate goal of 27% total energy from renewable sources by 2030, we will need to see continued support from Government, something that is uncertain past the 2017 closure of the Renewables Obligation (RO) and current Contracts for Difference (CfD) uncertainty.”