Record year for wind and solar electricity in Great Britain in 2025

According to BBC analysis, renewable energy, which is regarded as a key to limiting climate change, generated a record amount of electricity in Great Britain in 2025. According to provisional data from the National Energy System Operator (Neso), wind was the country's largest single renewable source of electricity. On 2024, solar-powered electricity increased by nearly a third, aided by the United Kingdom's sunniest year on record and the expansion of solar panels around the world. Although renewables rose marginally, fossil gas's electricity rose marginalize slightly, underscoring the difficulty of achieving the government's clean power target by 2030.

It has been a good year for renewable deployment, Pranav Menon, research senior associate at the Aurora Energy Research think tank, said.

But] what we're not seeing is actually the exponential growth that you'd expect to see in 2030,

he explained. The government intends to produce electricity by 2030 if it meets the government's clean power target. It is also under pressure to keep energy bills down by up to £300 a year from now, and has argued that clean power will achieve this. Neso results - and the clean power goal - only concern the United Kingdom and not Northern Ireland, which has its own electricity transmission system operator. Renewables' rapid growth has been one of the world's best areas of change in the fight against climate change. Over the past decade, the trend has been evident in Great Britain. To help achieve its own green power goal and reduce its planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, the government needs to ramp up renewables even more quickly. According to BBC analysis of provisional Neso data in 2025, wind, solar, hydro, and biomass produced more than 127 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in the United Kingdom in 2021. That puts the previous record of 119. TWh in 2024 over the 2024 record.

According to a Neso study, wind produced more than 85 percent - nearly 30% - of Great Britain's electricity last year, up marginally on 2024. Solar power was the most notable change, but it was not the first one. Solar panels produced more than 18TWh, or more than 6% of British electricity, over the course of the year. Although it is only a small sample, it does represent a rise of more than 4 TWh to 2024. Solar was generating more than 60% of electricity for a small number of half-hour periods in July at its peak. No such period in 2013 saw more than half of the solar energy production.

Solar panels have soared across the United Kingdom for a large part. More large solar farms have come online this year, including the largest atCleve Hill near Faversham in Kent, including this one. And it was a record year for solar panels on rooftops, with around 250,000 new small-scale installations reported to the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. Conditions were perfect for British solar panels to capitalize on long, sunny days throughout the spring and summer, with 2025 the UK's sunniest year on record.

Solar's certainly a bigger piece of the system than we expected,

Michael Grubb, a University College London professor of energy and climate change, said. When the conditions are right, renewables can produce significant amounts of electricity. According to a BBC review of Neso data, at least half of Britain's electricity came from renewables on roughly a third of days in 2025.

However, the British electricity grid is also heavily dependent on fossil fuels. According to Neso's report, gas generated more than 77 TWh, or 27 percent of electricity, up from 72TWh in 2024. That could be due to several factors, including Britain's import of marginally less electricity from Europe, lower nuclear generation, the closing of the last coal power station in 2024, and higher electricity demand. According to Neso's estimates, the UK's electricity was marginally more polluting in 2025 than 2024, owing to the rise in gas. Each kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity in 2025 produced 126 g/kWh of planet-warming carbon dioxide on average, up from 124g/kW in 2024 but down from 555g

Neso's figures only cover generation connected to the main transmission network, with the exception of wind and solar. They do not include smaller-scale gas, biomass, and hydro generators feeding in electricity at a local level, but they do represent only a small fraction of Britain's total generation. Separate analysis of UK government data by the climate website Carbon Brief - which includes these smaller sources and Northern Ireland - shows similar trends to the Neso results for Great Britain. That includes a new renewables record and a modest increase in gas generation.

Off track for clean power?

The government has set a target of 95% of all electricity generated in Britain by 2030, with 95% coming from renewables and nuclear energy. According to government statistics, almost three-quarters of total electricity generation for the year occurred in 2024 clean sources. These figures differ from Neso's estimates, which include imports as well as some gas generation that has not been included in the government's clean power policy definition. Government figures for 2025 will not be announced until later this year, but the amount of gas in the electricity mix shows there is still a lot to be done.

There are still a few times of the year when the sun is not shining, the wind isn't blowing, demand is high [. ] and here's where the system is really forced to rely on gas-fired power to turn up and satisfy demand.

Mr Menon said. He continued that there were answers to this problem. They range from batteries to store renewable electricity to use when it is less sunny and windy, as well as other low-carbon sources such as nuclear, which can produce reliable output. One of the other challenges in meeting the clean power target is the ability to upgrade the electricity grid, partly to link new renewables and move their electricity around the country. Sometimes the grid cannot cope with all of the renewable electricity that could be produced, resulting in the payment of wind farms to reduce their output. Grid upgrades could help to minimize the issue, but upgrades can increase the cost in the short run. According to Prof Grubb, some of the savings from some of America's cheapest renewables that are starting to displace gas power could be offset by this. However, he expects bills to start declining in the coming years, partially due to those renewables, but also considering that gas prices dropped from their recent high levels.

This government is keeping its promise to reclaim control of Britain's energy with clean homegrown energy, according to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who referred to the renewables results.

This will shield households from volatile fossil fuel markets,

he said. However, shadow energy minister Claire Coutinho begged on the government to abandon its clean power target, arguing that it was raising energy bills.

Britain is generating more renewable energy than ever before, but people should be aware of the extra costs that go along with it," she said. Join our Future Earth newsletter to stay up to date with the most up-to-date climate and environment news with BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.