Solar and the UK are not words that are readily associated. But improbable as it may seem, solar power became – albeit briefly – the biggest power source in the UK last week – overtaking for the first time gas generation, and of course nuclear. There was zero coal power. At the time – 2.12pm local time on Saturday, June 30 – solar provided a little more than 27.7 per cent of the country’s electricity, benefiting from a heatwave that had swept the nation for nearly a week. According to this chart above from Electric Insights,solar just shaded gas at that point, with nuclear providing 22.8 per cent, wind providing 10 per cent, biomass 4 per cent and coal a big fat zero. imports and storage accounted for 8 per cent. The heatwave meant that solar reportedly delivered some other records – generating more than 75GWh on five of the seven days and hitting more than 8GW for eight consecutive days.
Renew Economy 4th July 2018 read more »
