The Alternative Green Energy Thread

JKenH

If I have interpreted the figures in this report correctly despite renewables enjoying a record year, in 2025 gas generation, (up 5TWh) increased by more than either wind (4TWh) or solar (4.5TWh), and the carbon intensity of the grid increased by 2%. 

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables-enjoy-record-year-in-2025-but-gas-power-still-rises/

thevilla

Gas generation increased on increased demand and lower nuclear generation I believe.  If increased demand is a sign of increased electrification of transport, heating, industrial processes then it could well signal a decrease in co2.  Using gas fired electricity for EV charging is still less polluting than burning petrol for example.  There is a strong case to electrify even if renewables lag. 

QrizB

JKenH said:

If I have interpreted the figures in this report correctly despite renewables enjoying a record year, in 2025 gas generation, (up 5TWh) increased by more than either wind (4TWh) or solar (4.5TWh), and the carbon intensity of the grid increased by 2%. 

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-renewables-enjoy-record-year-in-2025-but-gas-power-still-rises/

FWIW I think you're right.

thevilla said:

Gas generation increased on increased demand and lower nuclear generation I believe.

Gas is up 5TWh (shame) but we've got rid of the last 2TWh of coal (hooray), nuclear had problems so was down 5TWh (boo) and we had 1TWh fewer imports (cheer or boo as you feel apropriate).
Meanwhile solar is up 5TWh and wind is up 4TWh.

On the whole it seems like we're still edging in the right direction. If HPC had come online in 2025 as originally planned, we'd be in a better position but it seems that's not now expected until 2029 - 2031. 3GW of new nuclear running for 11 months of the year would be about 24TWh, 7.5% of total electricity demand.

Netexporter

Nuclear has been consistently down, for ages. Is a reactor completely offline, or are they not driving any of them too hard, in the hope they'll last until Hinkley C comes online?

QrizB

Netexporter said:

Nuclear has been consistently down, for ages. Is a reactor completely offline, or are they not driving any of them too hard, in the hope they'll last until Hinkley C comes online?

Maintenance problems due to complications and overruns, I think.

https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/power-station/daily-statuses

Netexporter

Interesting. Thanks.

JKenH

According to Drax Electric Insights gas generation reached 26.5GW over lunch time today. I wonder what peak we might see later in the day. As demand increases with more EVs, heat pumps and data centres I expect we will see increasing peak gas generation even as the overall contribution of gas to the grid falls with the continued roll out of renewable generation. 

I must have missed this at the time but while trying to find past gas generation peaks (not publicised it seems) I saw wind generation hit a new high on 5th December of 23.825 GW.

ed110220

Netexporter said:

Nuclear has been consistently down, for ages. Is a reactor completely offline, or are they not driving any of them too hard, in the hope they'll last until Hinkley C comes online?

I guess it depends what you mean by ages, but the UK's nuclear capacity has been declining for almost 30 years as reactors have reached the end of their lives.



Generation has followed, with quite a bit of year-to-year variability due to planned and unplanned outages.

No reactors have closed since 2022 though. It's interesting, and unfortunate for us, that the load factor of the UK's nuclear fleet is fairly low at 72% in 2024. The world average was 76% that year. Figures from the World Nuclear Association: United Kingdom - Reactor Database - World Nuclear Association