UK August carbon emissions hit 'lowest levels since World War II'

UK electricity generated from fossil fuels in August fell to “the lowest levels in a single calendar month since the Second World War” for the second year running, energy consultancy EnAppSys said this week.

A rise in the level of renewable energy power generation saw fossil fuel generation total 8.7TWh in August – a slight rise from the 8.6TWh achieve in August 2017.

Rob Lalor, senior analyst at EnAppSys, said the trend had turned August into “the cleanest calendar month of the year in modern times”.

This month’s record low levels of fossil fuel generation has been driven by low demand for electricity – typical of summer months – and growth in renewable generation, despite a decrease in the levels of nuclear and wind generation so far this year.

Although renewable generation was down last month by 31 per cent from a peak in January this year, renewables still provided a quarter of all power generation this August, according to Lalor.

EnAppSys analysis found that nuclear provided just over a quarter of last month’s power, reaching 27 per cent.

“This leaves summer – and in particular, August – as the cleanest month of the year, with levels of emissions below those noted at any other time,” Lalor said.

“If levels of solar capacity start to rise once again, this trend should see significant uplift. Otherwise, growth will depend very much on the fortunes of the wind and nuclear fleets in the market.”

This article was updated on 07/09/18 to change ‘energy’ to ‘electricity’ in the first sentence.