Offshore Wind Generates 9.9% of UK Energy in 2019

The UK renewable electricity capacity was 47.4GW at the end of 2019, a 3GW or 6.9% increase on the year earlier.

Offshore wind farms generated 31.9TWh of electricity, representing a 19.6% increase compared to the year before.

In the fourth quarter of the year, renewable electricity generation was a record 32.5TWh, an increase of 0.9% on 32.2TWh in 2018 Q4.

Offshore wind was the largest component of renewable generation at 31.4% or 10.2TWh in Q4, increasing by 14.5% compared to Q4 of 2018.

Compared with the end of 2018, the largest change in capacity was for offshore wind which increased by 1.6GW or 21%. This was because the Hornsea Project One and the Beatrice offshore wind farms extended their total capacity to 1,211MW and 588MW, respectively.

Renewable electricity generation in England was 77TWh, an increase of 5.8% on 2018. Of this extra generation, 3.1TWh came from offshore wind, again due to increased capacity.

Generation in Scotland was 30.5TWh, an increase of 15%. 2TWh of this additional generation was from offshore wind.