Renewable sources generated more of Britain’s electricity than fossil fuels for the first time last quarter, an analysis by specialist Web site Carbon Brief published on Monday showed.
“In the third quarter of 2019, the UK’s windfarms, solar panels, biomass and hydro plants generated more electricity than the combined output from power stations fired by coal, oil and gas,” the Web site said.
“During the three months of July, August and September, renewables generated an estimated total of 29.5 terawatt hours (TWh), compared with just 29.1TWh from fossil fuels,” it said.
It is the first time that renewables have outpaced hydrocarbons since the country’s first public electricity generating station opened in 1882.
Renewables accounted for less than 10 percent of the country’s total electricity generation at the turn of the decade, Carbon Brief said.
The amount generated by renewables has since quadrupled, but gas remains the single biggest source of electricity production, accounting for 38 percent of the total over the three months, followed by nuclear power at 21 percent and wind at 20 percent.
Formerly the lungs of British industry, coal now generates less than 1 percent of the country’s electricity needs, and is expected to be entirely phased out by 2025.
Britain is looking to exploit offshore wind resources as it tries to achieve its target of carbon neutrality by 2050.
The government in August authorized the extension of a project to build the world’s largest wind farm in the North Sea, 90km off the coast of Yorkshire.
GERMAN MANEUVERING
Separately, Germany’s biggest generator of electricity is looking abroad for growth as it closes down coal-fired power plants targeted in the government’s fight against climate change.
With many of the nation’s best sites for wind and solar farms taken and a complicated permission system, RWE AG is looking to build renewable-energy assets in the US, the UK, Eastern Europe and Asia.
The goal indicates the limits RWE has for maneuvering in Germany, where utilities are negotiating with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government over how long they can continue to operate coal plants and what incentives will be in place for alternative energy supplies.
The nation must tighten limits on pollution to meet targets it pledged for reducing emissions under the Paris Agreement on global warming.
“Our future in Germany won’t be determined by us,” RWE chief financial officer Markus Krebber said in an interview in Frankfurt.
“What’s important for us is having a stable, reliable and favorable investment environment, which is determined not only by the company, but moreover by the government,” Krebber said.
RWE is supporting Germany’s energy transition, which envisions handing a 65 percent market share to electricity from green sources by 2030, up from about 44 percent now.
To achieve that, Merkel’s administration in January decided to shut down all coal plants by 2038.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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