Offshore Wind Lifts U.K. Renewable Energy

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The rollout of offshore wind projects in the U.K. has helped boost renewable energy to a new high in the country's electricity mix.

For the first quarter of 2013, renewable electricity generation topped 12.4 terawatt hours (TWh), accounting for 12.3% of the U.K.'s total power, up from 11.3% for the same period last year. The 10% increase, according to figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), "shows that progress has been made against the U.K.'s 15% target introduced in the 2009 E.U. Renewable Directive."

"Renewable generation grew by 10 per cent, with its share of electricity generation up to 12 per cent from the 11 per cent share in the first quarter of 2012," DECC stated. "Hydro generation decreased by 32 per cent on the first quarter of 2012 as a result of lower rainfall, while wind generation increased by 29 per cent."

Offshore wind was the fast-rising star of the renewable portfolio for Q1, increasing by 68% on a year earlier, from 1.5 TWh to 2.5 TWh. Onshore wind increased also, rising by 13% in the first quarter of 2013 to 4.0 TWh, up from 3.6 TWh in Q1 last year.

Generation from bioenergy increased by 3.5% over Q1 in 2012 to 4.2 TWh. Bioenergy remained the largest renewable energy source in Q1, accounting for 34%, followed by onshore wind on 32% and offshore wind with 20%.

Installed renewable electricity capacity was 17.6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of the first quarter of 2013, a 33% increase -- or 4.4 GW -- on a year earlier.

Of electricity generated in the first quarter of 2013, coal accounted for 41%, while gas accounted for 26% - its lowest first quarter share in the last 15 years, due to high gas prices. Nuclear generation contributed 18% of total electricity generated in Q1. For the first quarter, generation from coal fell by 1.2% and gas fell by 2.0% compared with the same period in 2012. At the same time, nuclear saw its share rise by 6.3% due to increased availability after outages in the same quarter a year ago.

Overall, low carbon generation accounted for 30.4% of generation in Q1 2013, compared to 28.4% in the same period of 2012.

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