New data from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz) have shown that the VK Records broke for the volume of its electricity that came from renewable sources last year.
In 2024, 50.4% of British electricity generation consisted of renewable energy sources, a record high and an increase of 3.9% compared to the 46.5% figure. The vast majority of this came from the wind generation, which supplied 83.3 TWH and made 29.2% of the British energy generation mix -this is also a new record and represents an increase of 1.4% compared to 2023. The generation of solar energy remained stable in 2024, which means that 5% of the electricity row. In the meantime, Bio -Energy saw an increase of 2.4% and made up 14.1% of the electricity generation in 2024, while the Hydro -electric generation saw only a slight increase compared to its 2023 share, by 0.2% to make 2% of the British electricity generation in 2024.
The generation of fossil fuels reached a record layer of 31.8% of British electricity generation in 2024; This figure is partly caused by the VK that stops generating electricity generation after the closure of the last coal-fired power station of the VK, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, in September 2024. Gas remains the largest single source of British energy generation, which last year 30.4% of the generation. However, this figure represents the lowest share per generation source for gas since 2015 and is a decrease of 4.2% compared to the share of 2023 and a decrease of 15% compared to 2023 in the generation volume.
Nuclear generation also saw an increase in generation share in 2024, an increase of 0.4% compared to 2023 to achieve a share of 14.2% of British electricity generation. However, onsnz notes that this increase is due to a decrease within the total generation volumes in the UK instead of an increase in the nuclear generation itself. “Low carbon sources” of generation – defined as nuclear energy in addition to renewable energy generation – rose to a share of 64.7% of British electricity generation in 2024, another record high and 4.4% higher than 2023 figures.
Graph: Desnz.
Import and export
UK Net Net Electricity Import rose by 40% from the 2023 figure, with the UK importing 33.4 TWH electricity in 2024. The VK imported 19.5TWH of electricity from France in 2024, 9.6TWH from Norway, 4.2TWH from Belgium and 3.7TWH from Denmark. The French and Norwegian Interconnectors delivered both record imports to the UK in 2024.
In the meantime, last year, the UK was a net exportor of electricity to the Republic of Ireland, which is connected by a submarine interconnectoren cable from Wales and a land connection from Noord -Ierland. The Ireland-Wales interconnector marked the net export of 2.7 TWH, and the Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Interconnector saw the export of 2.4 TWH.
With record -high import in 2024, the total electricity generation in the UK fell by 3.1% from 2023 to 285 TWH, despite the fact that the demand for electricity increases by 0.5% compared to 2023 levels. The domestic electricity consumption levels rose slightly from 2023 to 2024, with 1.9% to 94.4 TWHWH in 2024, but demand remains lower than the consumption levels that were seen before the pandemic.
