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Wind second only to gas in 2022’s UK power mix
Published January 13, 2023
Wind turbines made the second largest contribution to the grid after gas in 2022, reaching 26.8%, almost double that of nuclear at 15.5%, according to figures from the National Grid ESO.
The figures show that over the last 12 months gas provided the largest amount of the electricity used across Great Britain at 38.5%,
In November 2022, wind turbines produced more than 20GW of electricity for the first time. This record was broken again on 30 December when wind produced 20.918GW, the largest amount to date. That represented over half (53%) of all of Great Britain’s electricity on that day. Overall, 70% of energy generated that day was zero carbon (nuclear, wind, hydro, solar and storage)
Zero carbon electricity made up more than 50% of the power sent to the grid in February, May, October, November and December. And over the whole year, zero carbon electricity contributed 48.5% of power in comparison to 40% from gas and coal power stations.
The use of coal in our day-to-day energy mix has continued to decline, with coal responsible for only 1.5% of generation in 2022, illustrating the significant reduction that has taken place over the last ten years, when coal represented 43% of electricity produced in 2012.
