UK power generation in 2024 – Wattwatt?

From Edmhdotme

Ed Hoskins,

introduce

Germany, Britain and France account for half of all “renewable energy” that rely on European weather.

The illustrations here show the hourly powered production of all generations of technologies. For the UK, the data is as complete as possible.

UK power generation illustration 2024

The main flaws of GridWatch UK data ranged from 1/6/2024 to 10/7/2024, so a batch of data was replaced from late July of that year. This substitution does not seriously affect any cumulative results shown here.

Britain relies on weather-dependent 'renewable energy'

Productivity is important

The illustration of the 2024 UK power generation shown above, points out:

• An additional 48 GW of weather-dependent “renewable energy” was imposed, which reduced productivity in the UK's overall fleet, usually about 90%, to ~39.5%.
• ~48GW of installations rely on weather-dependent “renewable energy” equivalent to the contribution of UK grids ~9GW.
• In 2024, the combined productivity of the UK's weather-dependent “renewable energy” has a relatively low value.
• In 2024, offshore wind power in the UK is generally very productive, reaching a low level of productivity of only 23.5%.
• The unreliability and intermittentity of onshore and offshore wind energy can be clearly understood from the third figure above:
  • Wind energy output may be from close to full power within a few hours to almost powerless output.
  • The solar energy is inevitably day and night, and it is very much from summer to winter, and it depends on the clouds. The UK is one of the cloudiest countries.
• Solar energy always keeps its overall productivity low by about 10%.
• In the summer, solar energy contributes the most to low demand, while in the winter, demand is very little.
• The daily time contributed by solar energy cannot meet the high power demands of winter.
• Although the capital installation cost of solar energy is almost comparable to gas gases at nameplate capital cost, the cost of solar energy output is 10 times more expensive than installation and maintenance when considering low productivity.
• The UK depends largely on imports of electricity, mainly from nuclear energy from France, the Netherlands and Norway, accounting for about 15% of electricity generation in a year, and the UK exports electricity in only a few cases.
• The risks facing UK energy security are that import capabilities must be relied on:
  • Norway is already considering reducing exports to the UK and retaining the power output it uses.
  • France threatens supply to the UK amid the dispute over the Channel Islands.
• Imported power is almost equal to the entire output of the UK's current locally consistent nuclear power generation.
• The final closure of a coal-fired power plant in the UK took place in 2024, and before it closed, it contributed less than 1% of its electricity demand.
• ~48GW weather-dependent “renewable energy” installation ~65% of the UK-generation fleet installation also produces ~30% of cumulative power output, but the “renewable” power output is not matched: “renewable energy” Achieve in 2024 with a combined productivity of ~18.5%.
• Imported biomass emissions are about four times that of natural gas, contributing about 7% of UK demand.
• The use of imported biomass negates all CO2 emission savings from other weather-related “renewable energy”.
• With ~10GW+ gas installed, its productivity is about 87%, which is about 30% of all UK electricity: this power output is very flexible to schedule and can be used to meet demand.
• Gas open up gas, but do not use the indigenous natural gas resources in the UK, to a large extent, can compensate for the intermittent and unreliability of the large-scale weather-dependent “renewable energy” that has been installed in the UK.

Data: gridwatch.templar.co.uk ref.org