Lets just take a few seconds to reflect on the staggering growth in the amount of UK electricity being generated from renewable sources.
Energy is a complex topic and it seems renewables are constantly under attack from some nut job or another who thinks that climate change isn’t a big deal, coal and gas are limitless and dirty energy doesn’t receive subsidies. On the other hand, there are those of us who would like to see our dependence on dirty and insecure energy sources replaced much quicker with modern, sustainable methods.
It’s nice to have some good news and the graph above shows massive growth in UK electricity generation from renewable sources. Figures are from DECC’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2013. They show growth in renewable electricity generation from 11,127 GWh in 2002 to 41,258 GWh in 2012. Even more encouraging is the upward sweep of the graph over the last 2 years.
| Year | Electricity Generated (GWh) |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 5,812 |
| 1991 | 5,320 |
| 1992 | 6,398 |
| 1993 | 5,717 |
| 1994 | 6,956 |
| 1995 | 6,872 |
| 1996 | 5,685 |
| 1997 | 6,946 |
| 1998 | 8,649 |
| 1999 | 9,616 |
| 2000 | 9,914 |
| 2001 | 9,549 |
| 2002 | 11,127 |
| 2003 | 10,600 |
| 2004 | 14,147 |
| 2005 | 16,936 |
| 2006 | 18,106 |
| 2007 | 19,690 |
| 2008 | 21,800 |
| 2009 | 25,243 |
| 2010 | 25,838 |
| 2011 | 34,645 |
| 2012 | 41,258 |
Electricity generated from renewable sources in the UK in 2012 increased by 19 percent on a year earlier, and accounted for 11.3 per cent of total UK electricity generation, up from 9.4 per cent in 2011.
There’s still a long way to go but it’s good news and we thought we should share it.
