According to National Grid data, last year, renewable energy sources including wind and solar were responsible for generating more than three times the amount of energy generated from coal. With over 12 GW of solar PV now installed across the UK, the technology was responsible for outperforming coal on over half of the days in 2017.
In total, over 13 renewable energy records were broken throughout 2017 with some of these covered in a recent blog post.
These records are very pleasing and reflect the efforts from the government, consumers and business to proactively shift their focus and support to produce a low-carbon economy. It’s also a positive step that reflects the Government’s ongoing commitment to the COP21 Paris agreement and the Climate Change Act, though much more work still needs to be done to meet these targets.
On the flip side, whilst renewables are set to phase out energy production from coal in the near future, renewables have so far only managed to outperform the energy output from gas on just 23 days last year. With heating systems around the country generally relying on this type of fuel, the Government have a difficult task ahead in reducing the reliance on this particular fossil fuel in favour of powering heating from renewable sources.
Nevertheless, the records set last year are a step in the right direction and it is now down to the Government to keep pushing this trend, ideally at a faster rate of growth.
The industry now enters 2018 with the anticipation of setting new records to further decarbonise the UK. Visit EvoEnergy’s smart energy solutions page to see how your business can reduce it’s carbon footprint through green technology investment.