Renewable energy in the United Kingdom refers to energy from renewable sources used for electricity generation, heat and transport in the United Kingdom. In 2024, renewables accounted for 50.4% of UK electricity generation and 16.2% of gross final energy consumption.
Renewable electricity is dominated by wind, with generation from bioenergy, solar power and hydroelectricity contributing less. Renewable heat comes mainly from biomass and heat pumps, and renewable transport energy is supplied mainly through biofuels, with a smaller contribution from renewable electricity used in transport.
Support for renewable electricity has shifted from the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs to auctioned Contracts for Difference (CfD) for new large-scale generation and the Smart Export Guarantee for small generators. Renewable transport fuels are supplied under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. Distributed generation is dominated by small-scale solar photovoltaics, and community energy is supported through national and devolved programmes. Costs include technology costs and CfD strike prices, and the network, connection and balancing costs of integrating variable renewables.
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Overview The United Kingdom uses renewable energy sources for electricity generation, heating and transport fuels. Official statistics report renewable electricity as a share of generation and renewables as a share of overall energy consumption on a gross final consumption basis.
In 2024, renewables generated 143.7 TWh and provided 50.4% of UK electricity generation. Renewables were 16.2% of gross final energy consumption. Renewable electricity generating capacity increased by 4.1 GW (7.3%) during the year.
In 2024, around 73% of renewable fuel demand was allocated to electricity generation, with heat accounting for 17%, transport 9.4%, and grid-injected biogas 2.3%. Renewables' share of final energy consumption was 27.6% in industry, 25.0% for other final users, 17.0% for the domestic sector and 6.2% for transport, reflecting differences in electrification and direct use of renewable fuels between sectors.
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History Heat from wood fires goes back to the earliest human habitation of Britain.
Waterwheel technology was imported by the Romans, with sites in Ikenham and Willowford in England being from the 2nd century AD. At the time of the Domesday Book (1086), there were 5,624 watermills in England alone, almost all of them located by modern archaeological surveys, which suggest a higher of 6,082, with many others likely unrecorded in the northern reaches of England. By 1300, this number had risen to between 10,000 and 15,000.
Windmills first appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages. The earliest reliable reference to a windmill in Europe (assumed to have been of the vertical type) dates from 1185, in the former village of Weedley in Yorkshire, at the southern tip of the Wold overlooking the Humber Estuary. The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland.
In 1878, the world's first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power a single arc lamp in his art gallery.
However, almost all electricity generation thereafter was based on burning coal. In 1964, coal accounted for 88% of electricity, and oil for 11%. The remainder was mostly hydroelectric power, which continued to grow its share as coal struggled to meet demand. The world's third pumped-storage hydroelectric power station, the Cruachan Dam in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, came on line in 1967. The Central Electricity Generating Board attempted to experiment with wind energy on the Llŷn Peninsula in Wales during the 1950s, but this was shelved after local opposition.
Modern era
Renewable energy experienced a turning point in the 1970s, with the 1973 oil crisis, the 1972 miners' strike, growing environmentalism, and wind energy development in the United States exerting pressure on the government. In 1974, the Central Policy Review Staff recommended that 'the first stage of a full technical and economic appraisal of harnessing wave power for electricity generation should be put in hand at once.' Wave power was seen to be the future of the nation's energy policy, and solar, wind, and tidal schemes were dismissed as 'impractical'. Nevertheless, an alternative energy research centre was opened in Harwell, although it was criticised for favouring nuclear power. By 1978, four wave energy generator prototypes had been designed which were later deemed too expensive. The Wave Energy Programme closed in the same year.
During this period, there was a large increase in installations of solar thermal collectors to heat water. In 1986, Southampton began pumping heat from a geothermal borehole through a district heating network. Over the years, several combined heat and power (CHP) engines and backup boilers for heating have been added, along with absorption chillers and backup vapour compression machines for cooling.
In 1987 a 3.7MW demonstration wind turbine on Orkney began supplying electricity to homes, the largest in Britain at the time. Privatisation of the energy sector in 1989 ended direct governmental research funding. Two years later the UK's first onshore windfarm was opened in Delabole, Cornwall: ten turbines producing enough energy for 2,700 homes. This was followed by the UK's first offshore windfarm in North Hoyle, Wales.
The share of renewables in the country's electricity generation has risen from below 2% in 1990 to 14.9% in 2013, helped by subsidy and falling costs. Introduced on 1 April 2002, the Renewables Obligation requires all electricity suppliers who supply electricity to end consumers to supply a set portion of their electricity from eligible renewables sources; a proportion that would increase each year until 2015 from a 3% requirement in 2002–2003, via 10.4% in 2010–2012 up to 15.4% by 2015–2016. The UK Government announced in the 2006 Energy Review an additional target of 20% by 2020–21. For each eligible megawatt hour of renewable energy generated, a tradable certificate called a Renewables obligation certificate (ROC) is issued by Ofgem.
In 2007, the United Kingdom Government agreed to an overall European Union target of generating 20% of the EU's energy supply from renewable sources by 2020. Each EU member state was given its own allocated target; for the United Kingdom it was 15%. This was formalised in January 2009 with the passage of the EU Renewables Directive. As renewable heat and fuel production in the United Kingdom were at extremely low bases, RenewableUK estimated that this would require 35–40% of the UK's electricity to be generated from renewable sources by that date, to be met largely by 33–35 GW of installed wind capacity. The 2008 Climate Change Act consists of a commitment to reducing net Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80% by 2050 (on 1990 levels) and an intermediate target reduction of 26% by 2020.
The Green Deal was UK government policy from 2012 to 2015. It permitted loans for energy saving measures for properties in Great Britain to enable consumers to benefit from energy efficient improvements to their home.
In 2013, renewable sources provided 14.9% of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom, reaching 53.7 TWh of electricity generated. In the second quarter of 2015, renewable electricity generation exceeded 25% and exceeded coal generation for the first time.
In 2013, renewable sources accounted for 5.2% of all energy produced, using the methodology of the 2009 Renewables Directive. By 2015, this had risen to 8.3%.
In June 2017, for the first time renewables plus nuclear generated more UK power than gas and coal together. Britain had the fourth greenest power generation in Europe and the seventh worldwide. In that year, new offshore wind power became cheaper than new nuclear power for the first time.
Government figures for December 2020 showed renewable sources generated 41.4% of the electricity produced in the UK, being around 6% of total UK energy usage. Q4 2022 statistics were similar, with low carbon electricity generation (which includes nuclear) at 57.9 per cent of total electricity generation (same as Q4 2021).
From 2020, a rapid expansion of grid scale battery storage took place, helping to cope with the variability in wind and solar power. , 1.3GW of grid storage batteries was active, along with the earlier pumped storage at Dinorwig, Cruachan and Ffestiniog.
Policy, targets and support schemes UK renewable energy policy is shaped by statutory climate targets and uses support schemes and obligations across electricity, heat and transport. The UK has a legally binding target to reduce the net UK carbon account by 100% by 2050 compared with the 1990 baseline. The UK government has stated an aim to fully decarbonise the electricity system by 2035, subject to security of supply. Official statistics in DUKES track renewable electricity output and the share of renewables in overall energy consumption on a gross final consumption basis.
Electricity support The Renewables Obligation was the main support mechanism for large-scale renewable electricity in Great Britain for much of the 2000s and early 2010s. It obligated suppliers to present renewable obligation certificates or make buy-out payments, and it closed to new generating capacity in 2017 while continuing to support accredited stations for the remainder of their eligibility period.
Contracts for Difference (CfDs) are the main mechanism for supporting new large-scale low-carbon electricity generation in Great Britain. CfD payments are funded through a compulsory supplier levy. Payments can go to generators or be paid back, depending on wholesale market prices relative to contract terms.
Heat support Support for renewable heat has included the Renewable Heat Incentive, which closed to new applicants in 2022. In England and Wales, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides upfront grants towards the installation of low-carbon heating, including heat pumps, and is administered by Ofgem.
Transport fuels Renewable transport fuels are promoted through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, which places an obligation on fuel suppliers and includes sustainability requirements for biofuels reported under the scheme.
Electricity generation
Renewable electricity generation in the UK reached a record 143.7 TWh in 2024, accounting for 50.4% of total electricity generation. Renewable electricity generating capacity increased by 4.1 GW (7.3%) during 2024, with around half of new capacity in solar photovoltaics and most of the remainder in wind.
Wind
Wind power delivers a growing fraction of the energy in the United Kingdom. By the beginning of February 2020, wind power production consisted of 10,429 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of over 22GW: 13,575MW of onshore capacity and 8,483MW of offshore capacity, having risen from 7,950MW onshore and 4,049MW offshore since 2015. . RenewableUK – UK Wind Energy Database (UKWED) The UK is ranked as the world's sixth largest producer of wind power, having overtaken France and Italy in 2012. Within the UK, wind power is the second largest source of renewable energy after biomass.
2010 saw the completion of significant projects in the UK wind industry with the Gunfleet Sands, Robin Rigg and Thanet offshore wind farms coming on-stream.
2024 was a record-breaking year for wind power in Great Britain. Nearly 83 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity was generated across Great Britain, a 4TWh increase from 2023's 79TWh.
Ocean power