I love National Grid: Live but I wanted to see more historic data for renewable energy production so I've started to create something here. It's very much a work in progress but I will add to it over time.
Demand has been falling in recent years but as we electrify everything, it is beginning to increase. As can be seen from the graph, we already have enough low carbon capacity to meet demand on some days. However the trend lines suggest we won't be averaging 100% low carbon generation until 2035. The government is hoping to achieve 95% low carbon generation by 2030
This shows the percentage of our electricity that is coming from fossil fuels. This provides a more optimistic prediction for reaching zero fossil fuel usage as it suggests we may get there by 2032 and we'll get to 5% fossil fuel usage in 2031, which would equate to the government's aim of 95% low carbon generation. I expect the trend going forwards will not be linear and the use of fossil fuels will continue to fall but at a slower rate
This shows the wholesale price of electricity against the percentage of the generation that comes from fossil fuels. The data comes from the last 6 months so that changes in the price of gas don't impact the chart too much. It is clear that higher fossil fuel usage leads to higher prices.
Note, the wholesale price is not the only factor in what we pay for our electricity, and as the price drops, renewable subsidies will increase (since renewables are paid a contracted price for their electricity) so there is a floor to the price the consumer will pay.
This shows the cost of electricity rising after the start of the war in Ukraine due to higher gas prices and they have not returned to their old levels
Agile tariffs mean it's possible to charge up a battery when prices are low and use that electricity when prices are high. This chart shows how wholesale prices change over the day. This is the average over the last 12 months so it should only be used as a guide
Not a huge amount to see here at time of writing, but I'm hopeful it will start shooting upwards soon. It shows the number of hours where low carbon electricity has produced more than 30GW of power, which is the approximate demand for the UK
This shows that solar and wind are complementary sources of energy in the UK. Solar obviously peaks during the summer months and wind peaks during the winter months
This chart emphasises the big impact removing coal from our generation mix has had. In 2012, coal was our biggest generator of electricity and by 2019 it had virtually disappeared
This shows how the mix of generation has changed over time. Wind is now our biggest generator of electricity with solar starting to climb upwards
Supported by National Energy SO Open Data
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