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The amount of electricity generated by wind and solar panels has increased by almost a third, according to the latest statistics released by the government.
The first quarter figures for 2013 show that wind and solar PV generated 6.9TWh of electricity, up 29.8 per cent from the 5.3TWh in Q1 of 2012.
The jump is being attributed to an increase in capacity.
Nuclear also saw a modest increase in its Q1 production figures, producing an additional 6.3 per cent of electricity in 2013 than in 2012, up to 18.3TWH from 17.2TWh, due to increased availability of power stations after outages last year.
These increases help to boost the low carbon generation share of the energy mix to 30.4 per cent (up from 28.4 per cent in Q1 2012), despite there being a fall in hydro generation.
The driest March for at least 12 years resulted in a 32.1 per cent drop in the electricity produced from hydro plants, down to 1.3TWh in Q1 in 2013 from 1.9TWh in the same period in 2012.
Coal generation also posted a slight decrease in productivity, down to 42.1TWh from 41.6TWh, while high gas prices also pushed down the amount of electricity produced from gas plant from 27.1TWh to 25.5TWh.
The UK also saw 3.2 per cent of its electricity supplied met from imports, with net imports of 1.5Twh and 1.6Twh coming from France and Netherlands respectively.
The country’s overall energy consumption rose by 2.6 per cent in Q1 of 2013, from 86TWh in Q1 of 2012, to 88.2TWh.
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