First Update of January 2020 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

Below is this week’s summary. It should be a one minute read relevant to UK energy with links to documents for those who wish to read more.

(Click a bullet point to open the relevant article)

Tuesday – 31st December

• Sky News reports on a National Grid announcement that more UK electricity was generated from “low-carbon sources” (nuclear and renewables) in 2019 than from oil, gas and coal for the first time as renewable power capacity grows and coal declines almost completely.

Wednesday – 1st January 2020 (Happy New Year!)

• 20% of gas in the system of UK University of Keele is hydrogen as a test starts. The hydrogen is generated by electrolysis (from water) at a small facility on the campus. The article points to 20% as being the assumed limit of proportion of hydrogen with natural gas not requiring any adjustment to existing equipment designed to use natural gas alone.

Thursday – 2nd January

• The Energy Saving Trust has opened the year with a brief blog, using simple graphics to show progress in reducing UK domestic emissions across various aspects of average households. The piece then projects the necessary reductions by household in order to meet net-zero emissions by 2050.

• Denmark set a record for 2019 with almost half of its electricity being generated by wind.

Friday – 3rd January

• The world’s largest offshore floating wind farm began generating electricity off the coast of Portugal on New Year’s Eve 2019.

• Europe’s biggest economy Germany announced that almost half its electricity demand was met from renewable sources in 2019. The aim is to complete the phase-out of nuclear power by 2022.

• The Telegraph reports that the French city of Rennes has banned the use of cafe outdoor terrace heaters as part of the response to climate change.

Sunday – 5th January

• The Scottish Government has announced that all new homes must be heated by renewable or low-carbon sources from 2024.