November 2018
The Welsh Government commissioned Regen to produce the Energy Generation in Wales study to obtain a holistic understanding of the energy generated in Wales in 2017. The study charts the progress achieved towards their target for 70% of electricity consumption to be generated by renewables by 2030. Last year, the Welsh Government additionally set a target for 2030 that one gigawatt of renewable electricity capacity would be locally owned.
The report identifies that for 2017, 48% of electricity consumption came from renewable electricity generation, and estimates that 529 MW of installed renewable electricity capacity is locally owned. This demonstrates that the Welsh Government continues to take strides towards their 2030 electricity consumption target and are well advanced toward their one gigawatt goal.
Growth in the percentage of electricity consumption from renewable sources in Wales
These findings support the Welsh Government’s energy policy efforts to shift to a low-carbon society by highlighting the economic, community and environmental benefits from the development of renewable energy projects.
The report looks at generation across the board, analysing the total capacity of renewable, nuclear and fossil fuel electricity generation, renewable heat and storage in Wales in 2017, in order to then understand which proportion of this total was generated by renewables.
Electricity Generation Trends
Building on previous Energy Generation in Wales reports, it reviews the growth prospects of these low-carbon technologies – a crucial aspect when considering the remaining 22% needing to reach the 2030 target.
The study will be carried out again in future years, so that progress towards the targets can be tracked.
Author: Joel Venn
