Offshore wind on track to overtake onshore in 2020

Offshore wind is soon to become the largest single source of renewable generation in the UK after overtaking onshore wind across both of the last two quarters in 2019.

The latest annual figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show the gap between the two technologies tightening significantly during the year. Onshore output rose by 6.6 per cent to 32.2TWh, whilst offshore generation jumped by 19.6 per cent to 31.9TWh.

This was despite wind speeds falling to the lowest level since 2012. BEIS said the increase was instead driven by new renewable installations, which nevertheless fell to their lowest level since 2010.

Renewable capacity climbed by 3GW to reach 47.6GW by the end of 2019. Offshore wind accounted for the majority of the increase, rising by 1.6GW to almost 9.8GW due to the buildout of the Beatrice, Hornsea One and East Anglia One windfarms. Onshore wind capacity increased by 629MW to 14.2GW.

With offshore wind expected to continue expanding at a faster rate, 2020 is likely to be the first in which the technology surpasses onshore wind to become the largest single source of renewable generation.

The extra wind output helped drive an 8.5 per cent increase in overall renewable generation to 119TWh. Renewables’ share of the generation mix rose by 3.9 percentage points to 36.9 per cent.

A series of prolonged outages meant nuclear generation dropped 14 per cent to 56TWh – the lowest level since 2008. Nevertheless, low-carbon sources accounted for more than half of generation for the third year running, with their combined share rising by 2 percentage points to 54.2 per cent.

Coal generation fell almost 60 per cent to 6.9TWh due to low gas prices, high carbon prices and a series of closures which left only five major power stations in operation by the end of the year.

The fuel’s share of total generation fell to just 2.1 per cent, down from 5.1 per cent in 2018. Meanwhile, gas generation nudged up 1.4 per cent to 132TWh, thereby increasing its share to 40.9 per cent.

Generation by technology over the last decade

Overall generation across the UK fell by 2.8 per cent to 323TWh as warmer weather and improvements in efficiency cut consumption by 1.8 per cent to 294TWh. Net imports via interconnectors increased by 11 per cent year-on-year to 21.2TWh, representing 6.4 per cent of all electricity supplied.

Alongside its latest Energy Trends statistics, BEIS also released provisional emissions figures for 2019 showing greenhouse gas emissions down 3.6 per cent to the equivalent of 435 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and carbon emissions down 3.9 per cent to 351 million tonnes.

Emissions from energy supply dropped by 8.4 per cent to 90 million tonnes – the largest year-on-year decrease of any sector of the economy – putting them almost 63 per cent below 1990 levels. Emissions from electricity generation fell 13 per cent to 57 million tonnes – a 72 per cent reduction on 1990.