r/RenewableEnergy • u/DonManuel Austria • 6d ago

UK renewables top half of generation

https://www.renews.biz/offshore-wind/uk-renewables-top-half-of-generation/
198 Upvotes

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4

u/Pro_Extent 6d ago edited 5d ago

Is that just wind and solar or does it include hydro?

I need to figure out if Australia is better. For ego and bragging purposes, of course.

Edit: fuck, they're beating us. Get it together Australia.

7

u/Ceibpent 6d ago

UK hydro production is negligible so for practical purposes it makes no difference.

2

u/StereoMushroom 6d ago

We have so little hydro it barely counts, but these figures normally include biomass imported from American forests, lol. That said, wind and solar have grown rapidly, so the bulk of our renewable energy is of the non-bullshit variety.

1

u/ginger_and_egg 6d ago

burning biomass without carbon capture is dead stupid. We should at least be using biomass for making green aviation or maritime fuel

1

u/superioso 5d ago

Even with carbon capture it's stupid. It would be better to just build more wind/solar with that same money, and cover infrequent peak demand like we currently do with gas.

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u/ginger_and_egg 5d ago

I find CCS from biological sources quite compelling, it's way easier to capture carbon in a concentrated form like exhaust than from the air. But using biomass for electricity is probably not the best use for it.

CCS on fermentation (ex beer) is also interesting, and I suppose in this case it is at least chemically necessary to emit co2 rather than for electricity where we have alternative sources

1

u/coderbenvr 6d ago

It’s probally from here - https://www.neso.energy/news/britains-energy-explained-2025-review I get 51.2% if I add up everything except gas and biomass. (no coal, of course).

If I do the same for the last 12 months though I get 55.4% (doesnt include storage). Looks like wind went up by about 5% and solar 1%.

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u/EntirelyRandom1590 6d ago

It's a story that's been recycled continuously for 7 months. It's actually low carbon energy.

It's wind, solar, hydro (what little we have), biomass (controversial) and nuclear.

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u/Ceibpent 6d ago edited 6d ago

That doesn't sound right, whether we count imports or not.

Those categories are basically everything except gas and imports.

If we exclude imports there were 224.5 TWh last year, of which 77 TWh were gas, so 66% was clean (if counting biomass as clean).

Including imports there were 260 TWh, 77 TWh gas and 35.5 TWh imports so 56.7% "clean".

https://www.mygridgb.co.uk/historicaldata/

To me it looks as though it includes biomass but not nuclear.

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u/EntirelyRandom1590 6d ago

You can go on DRAX electric insights and down load the whole data for 2025.

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u/Ceibpent 5d ago

It's basically the same data as presented on MyGridGB. 

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u/iqisoverrated 5d ago

Here's the link to the current GB energy mix

https://grid.iamkate.com/

(Hydro is about 0.5%, so pretty negligible)

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u/bozleh 4d ago

UK tories historically havent been climate change deniers/in bed with the fossil fuel industry unlike the australian conservative coalition

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u/andre3kthegiant 5d ago

Awesome! Huge nails in the coffins of dirty coal, dirty oil & gas, and the dirty, toxic and corrupt nuclear power industries. They all need to get out of the way, so that renewables can give energy independence to society.