The UK’s electricity was the cleanest it has ever been in 2024, with fossil fuel power reaching record lows and renewables at record highs, analysis shows.
In the last decade, the UK has more than halved its electricity from fossil fuels and doubled renewables, climate and energy website Carbon Brief said.
Its latest annual assessment shows the carbon dioxide pollution for each unit of electricity has fallen to 124g per kilowatt hour, down more than two-thirds from 419g per kilowatt hour in 2014, as the grid has shifted away from fossil fuels.
The polluting fuels generated just 29% of the UK’s electricity in 2024, as the a phaseout of coal generation culminated with the closure of the last coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, while gas generation has also dropped.
Renewables including wind, solar and biomass from sources such as as burning wood pellets and landfill gas generated a record 45% of the country’s power.
In total, a record 58% of the UK’s power in 2024 came from clean energy sources, renewables and nuclear, the analysis shows, while net imports also reached new highs.
While figures from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) show wind generating more electricity than gas in 2024, those numbers exclude a significant amount of gas generation – for example from combined heat and power plants at industrial sites, Carbon Brief said.
When all sources of gas-powered generation are taken into account, the fossil fuel is still the biggest single source of electricity, generating 28% of the UK’s power in 2024, compared to 26% from wind, Carbon Brief’s analysis found.
But increasing wind capacity as new projects come online, and taking into account below-average wind speeds in 2024, means that 2025 is likely to see wind overtake gas as the biggest source of power, the analysts said.
The assessment also finds the carbon savings of driving electric vehicles and using electric powered heat pumps have increased as the grid gets cleaner.
Driving an electric car instead of a petrol model now reduces carbon emissions by 70% over the lifecycle of a vehicle, while warming a home with a heat pump instead of a gas boiler cuts carbon dioxide pollution by 84%, the analysts said.
Carbon Brief said its analysis used data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Neso figures for electricity supplied to the grid in Great Britain, adjusted to include Northern Ireland and power used onsite or not connected to the high voltage national grid.
