Britain s greenest year yet but new technologies still needed to hit climate targets yorkshirepost.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yorkshirepost.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Published: 15 Feb 2021, 13:25
By:
Image: Andreas Gücklhorn (Unsplash).
Solar and wind generated 30% of Britain’s electricity in 2020 according to Drax’s latest Electric Insights report.
This was an increase of a sixth on 2019, with solar and wind suppling over 100TWh of electricity.
Last year was a bumper year for solar generation, breaking a number of records including peak generation hitting a high in April of 9.68GW. Similarly, wind had much to celebrate in 2020, including output hitting an instantaneous peak of over 17.4 GW according to Drax’s report.
Collectively renewables generated more than fossil fuels for the first time last year, with Dr Iain Staffell of Imperial College London, lead author of the quarterly Electric Insights report 2020, hailing it as a step “closer to the power system of the future”.