Britain hits renewable power record in 2025, but fossil fuel use also up
- By Reuters -
- Apr 02, 2026
Renewable power such as wind and solar provided a record 52.5% of Britain’s electricity generation in 2025, government data showed on Thursday, but fossil fuel use also rose.
Britain has a target to largely decarbonise its electricity sector by 2030, which will require a huge scale-up of renewable power.
- Renewable generation in 2025 reached a record 152.5 terawatt hours, up 5.7% from 2024, driven by record output from offshore wind, solar and bioenergy, data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero showed.
- Gas power generation rose by 4.7% and was the largest single source of electricity supplies, providing 31.5% of total generation.
- Offshore wind generation increased by 6.6% in 2025 as more capacity was added.
- Higher gas and renewables plugged a drop in nuclear generation which fell by 12% to 35.9 TWh, with older plants decommissioned and increased outages across the ageing fleet.
- Last year was the first in more than 140 years with no coal-fired power generation in the country after the last plant closed in 2024.
- Net electricity imports fell 11% from 2024’s record high to 29.7 TWh.
- Total electricity demand increased slightly, up 0.2% to 320.2 TWh.
- Separately, the government said on Thursday that greenhouse gas emissions fell 2% in Britain in 2025, with emissions from the electricity sector down 1%.