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industry & Government news

ZERO-CARBON SOURCES OUTSTRIP FOSSIL

FUELS IN BRITAIN THROUGHOUT 2019

WIND, SOLAR AND NUCLEAR ENERGY SUPPLIED
NEARLY HALF OF BRITAIN’S ELECTRICITY IN 2019

ZERO-CARBON ENERGY became of Britain’s electricity in 2019. This electricity. This has dwindled to 1.9
Britain’s largest electricity source compares to 43 per cent generated by per cent, and Britain set a new record
in 2019, delivering nearly half the fossil fuels – coal, gas, and other carbon for going without coal-powered energy
country’s power and outstripping sources such as oil and diesel. The altogether in summer 2019; it went for
fossil fuels for the first time, reports remaining 8.5 per cent was generated 18 days from May to early June without
The Guardian. by biomass, such as wood pellets. using coal to generate electricity, the
Following a dramatic decline in coal- This milestone comes as the UK longest such run since 1882.
fired power and a rise in renewable enters the mid-point between 1990 In December, National Grid unveiled
and low-carbon energy, 2019 was and 2050, the year in which it has plans to invest almost £10 billion in
the cleanest energy year on record committed to achieve at least a 100 the UK’s gas and electricity networks
for Britain, according to National per cent reduction in greenhouse gas over the next five years. A further
Grid, which owns and operates the emissions based on 1990 levels, and to £85 million will support changes to
electricity transmission network in become a net zero carbon economy. the ways people heat their homes,
England and Wales, and also runs the A decade ago, fossil fuels generated switching away from gas boilers to
Scottish networks. more than three-quarters of all technologies such as electric heat
National Grid’s latest data shows electricity, while zero-carbon sources pumps and hydrogen boilers. National
that wind farms, solar and nuclear accounted for less than a quarter, with Grid estimates that more than 23
energy, alongside energy imported by wind at 1.3 per cent. Then, coal plants million homes will need to install new
subsea cables, delivered 48.5 per cent provided almost a third of the UK’s low-carbon heating solutions by 2050.

CUADRILLA LOBBIES REGULATORS FOR PROGRESS ON UK FRACKING

CUADRILLA, THE BRITISH COMPANY how to reach a “workable” oversight cancelled, the emails highlight how
seeking to produce shale gas, has system under which shale gas could be the privately owned company has yet
continued to lobby regulators to produced commercially. to throw in the towel on the nascent
find “possible ways forward” for the The meeting was scheduled to industry. It has spent £270 million
fracking industry even after the UK take place on 20 November, nearly spearheading fracking in the UK at
government imposed a moratorium on three weeks after Business Secretary sites in Lancashire.
the controversial extraction technique, Andrea Leadsom called a halt to In a separate letter to the regulator,
reports The Financial Times. fracking after a report by the OGA dated 11 November, Cuadrilla also
Emails released to The FT under a found it was impossible to predict the requested that the terms of its
freedom of information act request show magnitude of earthquakes caused by fracking licences in England should be
that Cuadrilla sought a meeting with the the extraction technique. extended by “whatever time period the
Oil & Gas Authority, the regulator that Although the meeting between recently announced moratorium lasts”,
supervises fracking in the UK, to discuss Cuadrilla and the OGA was later in a move aimed at stopping the clock

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