Energy Trends: March 2021, special feature article - Capacity of UK electricity generation assets in the 21st century, 2000 to 2019
Tuesday, 30 March 2021 09:48
Special feature article from the March 2021 edition of Energy
Trends statistical publication. Key headlines: UK electricity
generation capacity rose steadily over the last twenty years with
total installed capacity above 100 GW since 2017, and up a third
since the turn of the millennium. During this time, there was a
dramatic shift in the capacity mix, particularly in the last
decade. Fossil fuel fired capacity declined from its 71.0 GW peak
in 2010, while renewable...Request free
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Special feature article from the March 2021 edition of Energy
Trends statistical publication.
Key headlines:
- UK electricity generation capacity rose steadily over the
last twenty years with total installed capacity above 100 GW
since 2017, and up a third since the turn of the millennium.
- During this time, there was a dramatic shift in the capacity
mix, particularly in the last decade. Fossil fuel fired capacity
declined from its 71.0 GW peak in 2010, while renewable
electricity generation capacity rose rapidly. In 2019, the
capacity share of renewables exceeded that of fossil fuel fired
plants for the first time, with renewable generators providing
47.1 GW, and fossil fuel generators providing 43.9 GW.
- Nuclear plant capacity declined gradually over the past
twenty years, with no new capacity since Sizewell B was
commissioned in 1995. The total capacity in 2019 was 9.2 GW,
which was 26 per cent lower than 2000 levels, following the
closure of the eight remaining Magnox reactors during this time.
- Fossil fuel fired capacity has been in decline since 2010,
predominantly driven by the phasing out of coal plants since
2013, while gas generation capacity has remained relatively
stable in this time. Coal generators, which dominated the
capacity mix in the 20th century and provided over a third of
capacity in 2000, provided only 6.8 per cent of capacity in 2019,
with just four coal plants currently in active operation at the
time of writing. Oil and dual fuelled stations have also largely
fallen out of the capacity mix, providing a combined share of
less than two per cent in 2019.
- Renewable installed capacity currently stands at just over 48
GW (according to provisional figures for 2020), which is just
under half the UK total. This compares to 3.0 GW of renewable
capacity in 2000 and is five times higher than the 2010 value of
9.3 GW. This expansion was supported by subsidy schemes including
the Renewables Obligation (RO), Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs) and
Contracts for Difference (CfD).
- The dominant renewable technology in terms of capacity is
onshore wind, which provided 14.1 GW in 2019, compared to 13.3 GW
of solar and 10.0 GW of offshore wind capacity. Bioenergy
provided 7.8 GW in 2019, having risen sharply since 2013
following the conversion of coal units to biomass at Drax and
Lynemouth.
Capacity
of UK electricity generation assets in the 21st century, 2000 to
2019
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