UK’s electricity was cleanest ever in 2024, analysis finds
The UK’s electricity was the cleanest it has ever been in 2024, with fossil fuel power reaching record lows and renewables at record highs, analysis shows.
In the last decade, the UK has more than halved its electricity from fossil fuels and doubled renewables, climate and energy website Carbon Brief said.
Its latest annual assessment shows the carbon dioxide pollution for each unit of electricity has fallen to 124g per kilowatt hour, down more than two-thirds from 419g per kilowatt hour in 2014, as the grid has shifted away from fossil fuels.
Phaseout
The polluting fuels generated just 29% of the UK’s electricity in 2024, as the a phaseout of coal generation culminated with the closure of the last coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, while gas generation has also dropped.
Renewables including wind, solar and biomass from sources such as as burning wood pellets and landfill gas generated a record 45% of the country’s power.
In total, a record 58% of the UK’s power in 2024 came from clean energy sources, renewables and nuclear, the analysis shows, while net imports also reached new highs.
While figures from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) show wind generating more electricity than gas in 2024, those numbers exclude a significant amount of gas generation – for example from combined heat and power plants at industrial sites, Carbon Brief said.
When all sources of gas-powered generation are taken into account, the fossil fuel is still the biggest single source of electricity, generating 28% of the UK’s power in 2024, compared to 26% from wind, Carbon Brief’s analysis found.
Wind
But increasing wind capacity as new projects come online, and taking into account below-average wind speeds in 2024, means that 2025 is likely to see wind overtake gas as the biggest source of power, the analysts said.
The assessment also finds the carbon savings of driving electric vehicles and using electric powered heat pumps have increased as the grid gets cleaner.
Driving an electric car instead of a petrol model now reduces carbon emissions by 70% over the lifecycle of a vehicle, while warming a home with a heat pump instead of a gas boiler cuts carbon dioxide pollution by 84%, the analysts said.
Carbon Brief said its analysis used data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Neso figures for electricity supplied to the grid in Great Britain, adjusted to include Northern Ireland and power used onsite or not connected to the high voltage national grid.
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And who can afford to pay their huge electricity / heating bills due to the ridiculous Net Zero drive? Certainly not pensioners. It’s a ridiculous Net Zero policy because achieving net zero in the UK will have no impact on global warming as the UK produces only 1% of global warming gases. Our money needs to be spent on dealing with the consequences of global warming in the UK such as dealing with houses built on flood plains. Net Zero policy must go.
It is the price of gas that has driven the huge electricity and heating bills, Ukraine War. It also does the UK balance of payments absolutely no good and supports some pretty nasty actors.
1% yes but it is called leadership as it is also happening in Australia and China.
Are you sponsored by the oil and gas industry?
Goody. Now for the rest.
We cannot ask others to do this when we do not and China will reach a tipping point in the next few years that will make your eyes water.
This is nothing to do with Net zero! It’s down to the way energy prices are based on fossil fuels only, resulting in the UK having one of the highest energy prices in thd World!