Figures released by Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy (DfE) have revealed record-breaking levels of renewable electricity generation between July 2018 and June 2019.
New statistics show that electricity produced from renewable sources – a group including biogas and landfill – reached 44% of total consumption across the region over the 12-month period.
This is up 7.4 percentage points on the same period the previous year and a significant jump on the 8.1% of renewable consumption recorded a decade ago, in 2009.
The largest monthly share was recorded in February 2019. At 58.6%, it was also the highest percentage witnessed in Northern Ireland since records began in 2008.
Northern Ireland consumed around 7,788GWh of electricity in the 12 month period, the DfE figures show, with 3,426GWh of the total – the highest rolling 12-month volume recorded to date – coming from renewables.
Wind was the dominant form of generation, coming in at 85.3%. Solar made up 3.2% of renewable generation and biomass 3.6%. Biogas and landfill gas made up 5.5% and 1.9% respectively.
Across the whole of the UK, wind also takes the crown for the highest percentage of renewable generation, according to figures released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in July. However, the difference is less stark than in Northern Ireland, with wind making up 49.1% of total UK generation in 2018 and solar – the next largest – 19.1%.
