UK renewables claim 44.6% market share in Q2 as offshore load factor rises

Renewables' share of UK electricity generation climbed to 44.6% in the second quarter, up nine percentage points on the year, government statistics showed Oct. 8.

The record quarter was largely due to a drop in total electricity generation from non-renewable sources as the coronavirus lockdown hit overall demand, pulling gas and coal units off the system.

While Q2 renewables generation of 30 TWh was 12% higher on the year, it was 29% lower than Q1 2020's 42 TWh, the highest green output figure for any UK quarter on record.

"Offshore wind [in Q2] increased by 31% to 7.8 TWh, however this was a decrease of 45% from the record generation in the previous quarter as average wind speeds dropped sharply back to typical seasonal levels," the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said.

Renewable installed capacity stood at 48.5 GW at the end of Q2, a 5.4% increase on the year. with most of this (77%) coming from offshore wind, which has now reached 11.2 GW. The government has just confirmed a target of 40 GW by 2030.

"Additions to offshore wind include the final turbines being constructed at Hornsea One and more capacity coming online at East Anglia One, which now stand at 1,218 MW and 680 MW respectively," BEIS said.

Onshore wind's load factor for Q2 fell to 19.7% from 20.2% in Q2 2019. Offshore wind's load factor increased from 30.7% to 32.8% over the same period.

Solar PV load factors for Q2 rose to 17.5% from 16.8% as average sun hours grew to 7.9 per day.

Liquid biofuels consumption fell by 24% on the year to 337 million liters in Q2.

"This was driven by reduced consumption of all transport fuels as COVID19 restrictions decreased demand," BEIS said.

Biofuel's share of road fuels increased to 6.3%, 1.2 percentage points greater than in Q2 2019.

UK renewables: quarterly capacity, generation

Installed capacity, MW:

Generation, GWh:

Source: BEIS