Great Britain: Wind overtakes gas as largest source of electricity

In 2024, 34.9% of the UK's electricity production came from wind power. This is an increase of 2.1 percentage points compared to 2023 and a new record. The proportion of electricity generated from gas fell by 5.2 percentage points to 30.7%. This means that wind power has become the largest domestic source of electricity for the first time. With the exception of coal, the other sources of electricity have also increased, but the UK generated 1.7% less electricity overall.

At the same time, however, electricity consumption via the national grid increased by 2.4 percent. England, Wales and Scotland have Europe to thank for the fact that customers on the island of Great Britain continued to be supplied: electricity imports rose by 31.8% in 2024. More than one in seven watt hours was fed in from foreign power plants, making imported electricity the third most important source after natural gas. It has overtaken domestically generated nuclear power (16.2 percent of domestic production).

This is shown by data from the state grid operator NESO (National Energy System Operator). Its grid supplies the majority of Great Britain and some of its outlying islands, but not Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. The data basis should be understood accordingly.

Biomass succeeds, coal is over

Biomass saw the strongest growth in 2024, both in relative and absolute terms. It generated 41 percent more watt hours. This means that its share of domestic electricity generation in the UK has climbed from 5.5% to 7.9%. The absolute contribution from nuclear power plants has remained virtually unchanged, while there were slight increases in hydropower, wind power, solar power, other energy sources and electricity storage. The only declines were in gas and coal.

Coal-fired electricity no longer played a significant role in 2023 (just over one percent). The UK's last coal-fired power plant was closed at the end of September 2024. This means that the UK has taken an important step towards the energy transition in just around a decade: in 2012, more than 44% of domestic electricity production still came from coal. 60 years ago, this figure was as high as 90 percent. Germany is not due to phase out coal until 2038.

The British government wants to triple offshore wind power by 2030. Wind power on the island could already contribute more if there was more capacity in the transmission grid. However, because this is not enough, some wind farms had to reduce their electricity production last year.

An investigation is currently underway with the aim of optimizing the electricity system. Consideration is being given to dividing the island into three zones. There would be different wholesale prices in each zone, depending on supply, demand and grid capacity.

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