It is the inexorable decline of coal as an energy source — coal that made the fortune of the Kingdom in the 19th century. But, following the announcement of the permanent closure of old power stations by 2025, the government has now revealed that in 2015 the share of energy produced from non-fossil sources stood at 46 per cent of the total.

A quarter of energy comes from renewables

Specifically, renewable energy sources in the broad sense — solar, wind and hydroelectric — provide a quarter of the country's energy, to which must be added the share from nuclear power (21 per cent), which is growing. What is nonetheless clear is the continued fall of coal, which has dropped to 22 per cent (in 2014 it was still at 33 per cent).

"The government made the right decision when it announced the phase-out of coal. We can now see that renewables are capable of filling the gap, replacing old technologies with new ones," Maf Smith of RenewableUK told the Guardian. "2015 was the first year in which renewables outperformed coal. A quarter of Britain's power now comes from wind, waves, tides and other renewable energy sources."

The UK still far from its 2020 target

Despite the good news on the renewable electricity generation front, the UK appears to still be far from its 20 per cent target by 2020. This is essentially due to the lag accumulated in sectors such as domestic heating and transport. Added together, these would not reach 15 per cent, according to a National Grid report.
"While we believe the electricity sector can meet the 2020 target, we are convinced that the progress required in the heating and transport sectors is beyond our reach," the report states. "The sector requiring the most development is heating. To meet the 15 per cent target, heat from renewable sources must increase by approximately 60 TWh from 2016 levels."