Wind Energy Leads as Britain's Top Electricity Source in 2024
By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) - Wind power was Britain’s largest source of electricity in 2024, topping gas-fired power plants for the first time, data showed on Tuesday.
Britain has almost 15 gigawatts (GW) of installed offshore wind power and aims to quadruple that to 60 GW by 2030 as part of plans to largely decarbonise its power sector by then.
"Wind was the largest source of electricity generation in 2024 for the first year ever, accounting for 30%," the National Energy System Operator (NESO) said.
Gas plants accounted for 26.3% of the total electricity mix while imports provided 14.1% and nuclear power plants 14%, the data showed.
Britain closed its last coal plant last year as coal accounted for just 0.6% of the country’s electricity.
During the year several clean power records were broken, with a maximum wind capacity of 22,523 GW hit on December 18 when wind contributed 68.3% of the country’s electricity.
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale; editing by Jason Neely)
