During the third quarter of 2024, renewables accounted for 50.5% of electricity generation in Great Britain.
Electricity statistics from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) show that during Q3, fossil fuel generation was 29% lower than in Q3 2023, accounting for 17.9TWh.
This marks the fourth consecutive quarter that renewables comprised over half of UK generation.
Although this year’s sun hours were the same as Q3 last year, a 10% increase in solar PV capacity saw a 9.2% increase in solar generation.
Renewable electricity generation was 32.2TWh in Quarter 3 2024, 6.5% higher than 2023. DESNZ also states that over the last year, 2.7GW of renewable capacity has been added: 1.6MW solar PV, 0.4GW offshore wind and 0.6GW onshore wind. Three quarters of this, the department says, occurred in the most recent quarter (which runs July to September, coinciding with the new government coming to power).
The UK hit two maximum wind generation records within a week, according to data from the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
On 15 December, 22,243MW of wind capacity was in operation at 6:30pm to achieve a maximum wind record for Great Britain, beating the previous record of 21,998MW, set on 10 January 2023. Then, on 18 December at 3:30 a.m., 22,523MW of wind capacity was in operation electricity, setting a new record.
There was a 4.5% drop in offshore wind generation, which DESNZ attributes to lower wind speeds. It also states the increase in onshore wind generation could be due to a higher level of new capacity.
UK solar capacity increases
DESNZ figures recently showed that as of the end of October 2024, the UK has a total of 17.2GW of solar generation capacity, a 1GW or 6.3% increase since October 2023.
Across October 2024, 76MW of capacity was added across 20,102 new solar installations. Of these, 73% were on residential properties, representing 58MW of the installed capacity added. This broadly reflects a trend evident in the UK solar sector, where the bulk of solar installations are domestic. However, domestic installations only make up around 30% of the UK’s total capacity, with approximately 5.2GW of solar generation coming from home rooftops.
This article originally appeared on our sister site, Current±.
