In May more electricity has been generated by PV panels than by coal-fired power plants in the UK. A huge reduction of coal-fired generation took place since the start of 2016.

Sun ries behind coal power station ( Credit: Phil Noble/Reuters )
© Phil Noble/ Reuters UK

On 9th of April 2016 solar PV generated 29 GWh of electricity representing 4 percent of the demand on that day. It was the first day on which PV outpaced coal-fired power generation in the UK. While such a one-day event cannot be associated with a shift in the power sector, a new analysis of CarbonBrief shows that solar PV even generated 50 percent more electricity than coal during the entire month of May. With an estimated 1336 GWh from PV and only 893 GWh output from coal the shift is more likely to represent more profound changes that the UK electricity system will undergo. Figure 1 depicts total electricity generation from solar PV and coal during each week between 1st of April until beginning of June 2016.

UK electricity generation from solar PV and coal during April and May 2016

Source: CarbonBrief

Figure 1:UK electricity generation from solar PV and coal during April and May 2016

Coal use in the UK has been falling since 2012, and fell to its lowest level since the 1950s just last year. Still, it supplied roughly 10 percent of Britain’s electricity then. The main reason for coals decline in the UK is the plummeting wholesale gas price. Since the beginning of 2015 it fell by 40 percent, thus also pushing down wholesale electricity prices. A further reason for coal’s decline is the increase of the carbon tax from £8 to £18 according to Peter Atherton from the investment bank Jefferies.

While PV reached about 10 GW of capacity in the UK, its share in the entire generation of electricity is still low, at about 2 to 3 percent. Renewables, especially wind and biomass, supplied 22 percent of UK’s electricity in the first quarter of the year. This renders renewables Britain’s second-most important source of electricity after gas. The share of electricity generated by different source in the first quarter of 2016 is shown in figure 2.

Share of UK electricity generation by different sources in Q1 2016 (source: CarbonBrief)

Figure 2: Share of UK electricity generation by different sources in Q1 2016