Offshore wind power generation in the UK increased from 2.2 TWh in the third quarter of 2014 to 3.4 TWh in 2015 Q3, a 53 per cent jump year-on-year, according to the statistics published by the UK government today.
The increase is attributed to a combination of higher wind speeds compared to last year as well as increased capacity. Offshore wind’s load factor increased by 6.5 percentage points, from 23.9 per cent in 2014 Q3 to 30.4 per cent in 2015 Q3.
Renewables’ share of electricity generation was 23.5 per cent in 2015 Q3, up 5.9 percentage points on the share in 2014 Q3, due to increasing renewable capacity and generally more favourable weather conditions for renewable generation.
Renewable electricity generation was 17.8 TWh in 2015 Q3, an increase of 33 per cent on the 13.4 TWh in 2014 Q3, though 18 per cent lower than the peak quarterly generation of 2015 Q1 (21.7 TWh).
At the end of 2015 Q3, the UK’s renewable electricity capacity totalled 29.7 GW, an increase of 4 per cent (1.1 GW) on that installed at the end of 2015 Q2, and 26 per cent (6.1 GW) on that installed a year earlier.