Thread by @simonahac

🤓 UK electricity market's decade of change:

• 2008: Gas 46%, Coal 31%, Nuclear 13%, Import 3%, Waste 2%, Wind 1.9%, Oil 1.6%, Hydro 1%, Biomass 0.3%, Solar 0%

• 2018: Gas 38%, Nuclear 17.4%, Wind 16.8%, Biomass 7%, Import 6%, Coal 5%, Waste 4%, Solar 3.8%, Hydro 2%, Oil 0.5%

👆 data from the *incredible* data visualisation site by @CarbonBrief, which shows all the interim years too, with a clear explanation for how the UK achieved it.

interactive.carbonbrief.org/how-uk-transfo…

the UK's coal phase-out has been phenomenal!

this @guardian graphic shows coal's changing role.

number of hours without coal in:
• 2016: 233
• 2017: 624
• 2018: 1856
• 2019: 3513

theguardian.com/environment/ng…

over the last 12 months, wind energy has pulled ahead of nuclear in the UK.

(amusingly, it's only in the last year that australia started generating more solar power than the UK!)

source: mygridgb.co.uk/last-12-months/

2016 gov't report shows planned coal & nuclear retirements.

coal is disappearing faster than expected, and just 3.2GW of new nuclear is scheduled to come online (hinkley point C, around 2025).

no chance nuclear will catch up with wind anytime soon.

nao.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

in just one decade, the UK has reduced the emissions intensity of their grid from 495 to 207gCO₂e/kWh.

(meanwhile, australia's is more than 3x as high — with no plan to reduce it now that the renewable energy target has been satisfied.)