The UK has dramatically increased its use of renewable energy sources as it pushes to ditch polluting fossil fuels and reach net zero by 2050. But how much does it currently use in comparison to fossil fuels?
Use of renewables is highest on the electricity grid. In 2021, renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower, produced 121.9TWh of power in Britain. That’s 39.9% of all electricity generation, down slightly from the record of 43.3% set in 2020. Wind power is the largest contributor, followed by solar, with smaller contributions from hydroelectric installations and biomass plants.
The government is aiming to meet 100% of Britain’s electricity demand with clean energy sources, which it defines as renewables alongside nuclear, by 2035. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he wants enough offshore wind to power every UK home by 2030, a goal that will require quadrupling offshore wind capacity.
However, electricity is just one way the UK consumes energy. The country also uses large quantities of natural gas, oil, and petroleum products. These fossil fuels are used by consumers when they switch on their boilers or fill the tanks on their cars, and by industry.
With those fuels included, just 6% of the energy consumed in the UK in 2020 was renewable.
The development and use of renewable alternatives to natural gas are much less advanced than in the electricity sector.
One clean alternative to natural gas is biomethane or ‘green gas’, produced from the anaerobic digestion of farm and animal waste. There are currently around 90 biomethane plants connected to the gas grid but they produce just a fraction of the gas we consume.
The government is exploring other alternatives to natural gas, including green hydrogen, but these technologies are far from being rolled out at scale. Heavy industry and shipping will likely receive a priority for green hydrogen when it’s produced.
Consumers will ultimately see their heating and transport electrified, with boilers replaced with electric heat pumps and petrol and diesel cars with electric vehicles. This will increase the country’s peak electricity demand by as much as 40%, making the construction of additional renewables capacity all the more urgent.
