Renewable Power Generation ‘Overtook Coal In Q1 2020’

In a first for the UK, renewable energy sources generated more electricity than any other main source of power for the first quarter of the year, helped by a fall in energy demand as the UK went into lockdown in the second half of March.

This is according to a new study from industry analysts EnAppSys, reported on by Smart Energy International, revealing that renewables generated 35.4TWh of power in the first three months of 2020, making up 44.6 of total generation.

Power output from wind farms surpassed 10GW for much of the quarter, with the rise in renewables output attributed to extreme weather conditions and a consistently high level of wind generation.

Consequently, renewables exceeded levels of gas or coal for a full three months for the first time, as well as exceeding levels of total fossil fuel generation by 36 per cent.

Director of EnAppSys Paul Verrill noted that because the weather is likely to go back to “more typical patterns” over the next few months, this surge in renewable power generation is “likely to be a temporary high”.

He went on to add, however: “Given recent trends which show that renewables are becoming an increasingly dominant player in Britain’s power mix, the continued build of offshore wind farms and the resurgence in onshore wind should see these levels being achieved more often in the longer term.”

Earlier this month (April), SSE Renewables issued a call to remove barriers to the deployment of offshore wind in order to cement it as the backbone of the country’s net zero energy system. Without such action, it may not be possible to achieve 40GW of offshore wind come the year 2030, putting the net zero 2050 target at risk as well.

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