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Total UK solar generation soared in Q1 2019 to 2.7TWh, helping renewables to a new quarterly high, a new report has said.
Energy market analyst EnAppSys has revealed that 2.7TWh of energy was generated by solar farms, up 43% on the previous quarter. There was also an increase in solar generation across Europe, up 14%.
Renewables collectively generated 27.2TWh in Q1 2019, adding up to 68% of the total volume of clean energy, with the remainder coming from nuclear power plants. Wind farms generated the most energy of the renewables, at 16.6TW. In February, wind hit record high levels of generation in a half-hour period, topping 15.1GW.
Fossil fuels accounted for only 43% of total power generation in Q1 2019, with coal production down 65% from the same period of 2018. Overall demand was also down 4% from the 85.4TWh recorded in Q1 2018.
Paul Verrill, director of EnAppSys, said that the market is continuing to progress towards “an increasingly green future.”
“Driving this progression is significant growth in levels of renewable generation which, on current trends, could overtake fossil fuels in the not-too-distant future,” he added.
The overall split of generation for the quarter was 39.5% from gas-fired power plants, 33.4% from renewables, 16.0% from nuclear, 7.6% from imports and 3.5% from coal-fired plants.