Government data for 2014 shows a 9.7 per cent fall in net carbon emissions from 467.5 tonnes in 2013 to 422 Mt last year as mild temperatures and better energy efficiency reduced the amount of electricity generation needed by 6.7 per cent last year.
Furthermore the power that was produced was cleaner than in previous years due to a sharp decline in the amount of coal-fired power used in the generation mix, the government said.
Coal-fired power accounted for 29.1 per cent of electricity produced last year, a 7.4 percentage point drop from the previous year. This was in part due to plant closures and conversions but was also the result of a shift to greater gas-burn as historic lows on the wholesale gas market reduced costs for CCGT plants.
Gas-fired power generation rose to take the dominant stake in the energy mix and accounted for 30.2 per cent last year, an increase of 3.6 percentage points on the year.
The government said this was “due to lower wholesale gas prices between June and August and to help meet the shortfall in generation caused by nuclear outages in the second half of the year.”
A string of unplanned nuclear outages hit the output from EDF Energy’s fleet in the second half of the year causing a 9.7 per cent year on year decrease in output to just 6.3TWh.
The government also reported a 20 per cent increase in renewables, to account for 19.2 per cent of the generation mix last year compared with just 14.9 the year before.