Wind overtakes natural gas as UK’s largest source of energy
As reported by Drax Insights, for the first 3 months of 2023, power generated from wind turbines took over from gas as Britain’s main source of electricity – the first time in more than 100 years that electricity generated from fossil fuels has not been our biggest source of power.
We were helped with the fact that the first quarter of 2023 was very windy but between January and March wind supplied 32.4% of electricity while gas accounted for 31.7%. Turbines generated 21GW of electricity for the first time in this period.
We reported yesterday that wind usually accounts for 25% of electricity, whilst gas usually accounts for 35%.
The UK is planning for a lot more wind capacity to come online in the years to come, like the Dogger Bank facility off the Yorkshire coast which will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world.
Only 10 years ago, wind was in fifth place in the league table but since then we have added 4 times the amount of onshore and offshore wind turbines and with more capacity coming online this will really help the UK hit its net zero targets by 2050. Importantly this will create a far more secure energy future by not having to import as much gas and avoiding the pitfalls of worldwide supply and demand issues.
It is expected that wind will continue to provide the lion’s share of our electricity in the coming winters too, while fossil fuels retreat into roles where they’re mainly used to provide system stability when required.
The electricity generated from fossil fuels is also expected to be made emissions free by use of carbon capture technology in the future but the aim is to eventually replace all fossil fuel generation with new clean technology.
As Drax confirmed, “one thing’s certain: the electricity generation mix in Britain is changing for good.”
Unfortunately, this is going to take time and until the point where we no longer have to import gas, it’s really important as a business that you keep a track on what’s happening with prices in these extremely volatile times as it will make such a big difference.
With prices being so high at the moment, our weekly price trends update is designed to help explain what the key drivers are and provide you with all of the information to make a well informed decision on when to agree your next contract.
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