UK Energy Stats For 2015
By Paul Homewood
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-energy-statistics-statistical-press-release-march-2016
DECC have just published provisional energy stats for last year.
Main highlights:
1) Electricity generation from coal has fallen sharply, from 101 to 76 TWh, with the nuclear, wind, solar and bio all helping to fill the gap.
Nuclear generation is basically back to where it was in 2013, following plant shutdowns for maintenance in 2014.
Total generation is effectively unchanged.
Fossil fuels still account for 54% of all generation.
2) Fossil fuels still dominate primary energy consumption.
Hydro/wind/solar barely register with only 2%.
Total energy consumption is 0.5% up on 2014, partly due to colder weather. The pace of reduction has slowed since 2011.
3) Emissions of “greenhouse gases” have fallen by 3.3% between 2014 and 2015.
This is due solely to the drop in coal use.
They now stand at 62.4% of 1990 levels. The EU Paris commitment is a cut of 40% by 2030 to be achieved “jointly”.
The UK is on course to hit this target by next year. Any further savings will simply allow other countries to get away with smaller cuts.
Sources
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-energy-statistics-statistical-press-release-march-2016
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I suppose that the Biomass is primarily Drax producing even more CO2 than before, but not counted because it is green CO2 and producing power costing over twice as much as coal.
To quote Benny Hill, “What a world, what a place, ain’t you glad you’re a member of the human race”!
I would like to see a “UK emissions of GHG” graph with biogas CO2 included. Of course they won’t publish that.
“…ain’t you glad you’re a member of the human race…”
The question was definitively answered, two hundred years ago:
“The more I see of the human race, the better I like my dog!”
Also, Mark Twain:
“Humans are often likened to jackasses. I think this is considerable unfair to the jackass!”
My cat is far better than 95% of humanity.
When did they find a way to make trees grow as fast as other trees can be burned?
Sorry, off topic but this is just sick:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/26/watering-down-the-climate-act-would-be-headline-chasing-populism
Cutting UK emissions via deindustrialization is not a wise thing in terms of jobs and economics. Which is mostly what has happened in the UK. US cut emissions by shutting old inefficient coal generation and primary blast furnace steel and replacing with new much more efficient nat gas fired CCGT and secondary steel (scrap or nat gas reduced iron pellets) electric arc furnaces.