UK Electricity Stats – Q1 2015
By Paul Homewood
DECC have now published their Q1 electricity statistics, here are the highlights.
Compared to the same quarter last year:
1) Total generation is up slightly by 1.2%, partly a reflection of the mild winter last year.
2) The drop in coal power has been partially compensated by the increase in gas.
3) Wind power’s contribution to total generation has only marginally increased from 11.2% to 11.7%.
4) The biggest increase in renewables was Bio, up from 4.59 TWh to 6.70 TWh.
5) Solar barely registers with just 0.76% of total generation. This is an estimated figure, which DECC calculate from an theoretical load factor, and suggests that solar is only working at 5.2% of capacity at this time of year.
6) Electricity consumption increased in all sectors, except for Industrial, where, alarmingly, it fell by 7.0%.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-section-6-renewables
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
“1) Total generation is up slightly by 1.2%, partly a reflection of the mild winter last year.”
A very crude indication of how mild Jan/Feb/Mar 2014 was, compared with Jan/Feb/Mar 2015, is that the 15.5 degC Heating Degree Days for Birmingham Airport (i.e. ‘roughly’ central within England):
2014: 834
2015: 941
i.e. 2015-Q1 space heating demand was ~ 12% – 13% greater than 2014-Q1
http://www.degreedays.net
Increase in Bio – Due to Drax conversions to Pellets
And putting Drax down as part of renewables is a con, anyway, if the emphasis is on reduction of CO2 emissions and “Saving the Planet!”
When you add in the CO2 emissions from the logging, chipping, shipping across the US, shipping across the Atlantic, and then carriage to Drax from the port, it’s worse than if Drax was still burning imported coal. Even the eco-warriors don’t deny that!
The wood pellets are far less dense than coal, with a much lower specific energy per cubic foot than coal, so they need a lot more trucks and ships to carry them for a given power output than coal. Compare that with the savings all round from converting Drax to run on gas, and plugging it into a pipeline from the Bowland Basin in Lancashire.
Increase in Bio-higher cost of electricity,more CO2,more destruction of the planets eco-systems,much needed croplands lost.Well done comrades.
Agreed, Avro607; especially as, contrary to their press releases, the companies which produce the wood-chips aren’t making them from weed trees or waste wood – they’re chopping down healthy and mature hardwood trees to make the chips, as it’s quicker and cheaper for them. And how long will it take for those trees to be replaced by fresh growth? Decades, at the very minimum.
Channeling a Loony Hippy : “Yeh man look at those low total of 10% for wind and solar, that shows how this evil right wing racist government has been holding wind and solar back ..If we had elected Miliband we’d be replacing the 80% of electricity that comes from coal/gas/nuclear with Solar/wind within 2 years la la la”