Nuclear and renewable power sources are expected to comprise a growing share of the UK’s energy provision, with far less energy coming from gas-fired plants in the future, according to the latest projections for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Power Engineering International shared the analysis performed by Carbon Brief for the department, which has halved its forecast for the number of gas plants needed in the UK since publishing its forecast last year.
Renewable power sources and nuclear energy are set to fill the gap left by gas, with the organisation predicting that twice as much renewable energy capacity will be brought online by 2035 than it estimated in 2015.
Falling fossil fuel energy generation is a positive step for the environment, with the report stating: “This is displaced by more renewables and eventually nuclear-based generation with increased imports (via interconnectors) until new nuclear capacity reduces the need for this in the 2030s.”
This all comes after the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published figures in December showing that low-carbon electricity generation (which includes nuclear, bioenergy and wind and solar) hit a record high in terms of its share of generation in the third quarter of last year.
Over half (54.4 per cent) of the UK’s electricity was delivered from low-carbon sources between July and September 2017, up from the 50.2 per cent recorded in the same period in 2016.
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