UK primary energy production fell by a record 14 per cent in 2011 to 136.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent, following sharp falls in output from the UK Continental Shelf as a result of maintenance activity and slowdowns. On an annual basis, petroleum was down by 17 per cent, with gas production down by 20 per cent.

Low carbon energy production grew – nuclear output was up 11 per cent, due to increased availability following a number of outages in 2010; wind output from major power producers was up by 59 per cent on additional capacity and higher wind speeds; with hydro up by 70 per cent following strong rainfall in Northern Scotland.

Gas accounted for 41 per cent of electricity supplied in 2011, with coal accounting for 32 per cent and nuclear 20 per cent. The share of generation by gas has fallen from 48% in 2010, with increases in the shares of generation for all other fuel sources.

Wind’s share of generation by major power producers has grown from 2.4 per cent to 4.0 per cent in 2011; with hydro’s share up from 0.8 to 1.5 per cent. Low carbon sources accounted for over 25 per cent of major power producers generation in 2011, up 5 percentage points on 2010 levels.

The EU 27 will exceed its target of meeting 20% of its gross final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, according to the European Wind Energy Association, following analysis of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans, submitted by the EU Member States to the European Commission.

“Taken together the Action Plans show that the EU-27 will meet 20.7 % of its 2020 energy consumption from renewables”, says Justin Wilkes, policy director of the EWEA. The National Action Plans show that one third (34%) of EU electricity demand will be supplied from renewables by 2020.

Wind energy will generate 14% of Europe’s total electricity demand in 2020 (494 TWh from 213 GW installed capacity), more than any other renewable source, up from 4.2% in 2009. Ireland will be the country with the highest wind energy penetration level at 36.4% of its total electricity demand, followed by Denmark at 31%.

15 Member States plan to exceed their national target, led by Bulgaria at +2.8% above its target, Spain (+2.7%), Greece (+2.2%), Hungary (+1.7) and Germany (+1.6%). Ten Member States will meet their national target, and just two Member States, Luxembourg (-2.1%) and Italy (-0.9%), have informed the European Commission that they envisage using the co-operation mechanisms to meet their national targets.

The 34% of EU electricity demand met by renewables in 2020 is made up of 14.1% from wind energy (10% onshore, 4% offshore), 10.5% from hydro, 6.6% from biomass, 2.7% from solar photovoltaic, 0.5% from CSP, 0.3% from geothermal and 0.1% from ocean.

The Government has announced new funding for renewable energy companies in Ireland. Funding will be made available through NER300, a financing instrument managed jointly by the European Commission, European Investment Bank and Member States of the European Union. It will assist eight carbon capture and storage and 34 renewable energy projects in the EU.

Single or joint ventures in areas such as bioenergy, solar energy, carbon capture and storage, geothermal, wind energy, hydro and ocean energy will be eligible to apply.

“This funding programme is evidence of the ambitious policy plans at European level, to move in a low carbon direction,” says Energy Minister Eamon Ryan. “The EU has set a target of 20% renewable energy in the next ten years – Ireland is and will continue to be, one of the main players in this project.”

In the first quarter of this year, one third of Irish start-up companies were in clean, green technologies. He continues: “We must seize upon this competitive advantage, and use it to our financial and environmental benefit. These monies would provide a huge boost for start-up and existing energy companies in Ireland and I encourage all eligible parties to submit their applications as soon as possible.”

Prior to being submitted to the European Commission, applications must be made to national authorities. In Ireland, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland is accepting applications at 01 8082100 or by emailing ner300@dcenr.gov.ie. The closing date for receipt of application is the 9th February 2011.

Production of electricity from wind reached a historical record on the 6th of September this year, with around 10% of all electricity delivered to consumers generated by the UK’s wind farms, according to data from the National Grid.

At the peak time of 8.30 pm on Monday 6th September, 1860MW was being generated – largely from Scotland – accounting for 4.7% of total generation at the time. National Grid also believes that if embedded wind generation (generation feeding directly into the low voltage local electricity networks by smaller wind farms) is taken into account wind generated about 10% of Great Britain’s power during the 24 hour period.

This is not including the contribution from other renewables such as hydro, which contributed a further 4%, according to data held by Elexon, the balancing and settlement code company for Great Britain. The total UK consumption during the 24 hours was 809.5GWh.

“We are expecting to see the contribution of electricity from wind gradually increase over the next decade, to around 30% of the UK’s total consumption. This news confirms that not only are the wind farms we have built so far starting to deliver, but that UK wind farm electricity yields are the best in Europe, and comparable with established technologies such as hydro,” says Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK, the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. “These figures underpin the strong contention that renewable energy – and wind energy in particular – is no longer alternative. It is on the scale and growing rapidly.”

The UK currently has 4,616.05MW of installed wind energy across 263 wind farms, with a further 2,716MW in construction and 6,126MW with planning consent. The industry has highlighted that added together this represents 13.5GW about to come on stream in the next few years. A further 10GW of wind energy projects in the planning system awaits determination.

“If we added together all the wind energy projects in planning to the projects already existing and about to come on stream, we would be three-quarters of the way to reaching our 2020 targets. If we count in the tremendous potential of offshore wind, the plan of turning the UK into a net energy exporter does not seem unlikely. Reaching our targets and unleashing the colossal opportunities wind energy brings to the UK is perfectly achievable,” Maria McCaffery adds.