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

Renewable energy sources seen as crucial to limiting climate change produced a record amount of electricity in the UK in 2025, a BBC analysis shows.

According to preliminary data from the National Energy System Operator (Neso), wind was the largest renewable source of electricity.

But solar electricity production has risen by almost a third from 2024 levels, helped by the UK's sunniest year on record and the proliferation of solar panels across the country.

While fossil gas power lags behind renewables, it has also increased slightly, highlighting the challenge of meeting the government's 2030 clean energy target.

“It's been a pretty strong year in terms of renewable energy adoption,” said Pranav Menon, senior fellow at think tank Aurora Energy Research.

“[But] what we don't see is the kind of exponential expansion that is needed to achieve clean energy by 2030, because those goals are very, very ambitious,” he added.

As part of its clean energy goal, the government aims to use virtually no polluting gas to generate electricity by 2030. It is also under pressure to deliver on its promise to cut energy bills to £300 by then and claims clean energy can achieve this target.

Neso's data – and the clean energy target – only covers the UK, not Northern Ireland, which has its own transmission system operator.

recent growth in renewable energy has been one of the strongest areas of progress in the world's attempts to cope with climate change.

This trend has been visible in the UK over the past decade. The government wants to ramp up its use of renewable energy even faster to help meet its own clean energy target and cut planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions.

In 2025, wind, solar, hydro and biomass The UK generated more than 127 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, according to the BBC's analysis of Neso's preliminary data.

This exceeds the previous maximum of 119 TWh in 2024.

Wind produced more than 85 TWh – almost 30% – of the UK's electricity last year, slightly more than it will in 2024, according to Neso data analysis.

But the most noticeable change has been solar energy.

Over the course of a year, solar panels produced more than 18 TWh – more than 6% of the UK's electricity.

Although this is still a relatively small share, it represents an increase of more than 4 TWh compared to 2024.

At its peak, solar power produced more than 40% of electricity for a small number of half-hour periods in July.

As recently as 2013, during none of these periods did electricity production from solar energy exceed approximately 5%.

One reason is the proliferation of solar panels across the UK. More large solar power plants have come online this year, including the largest in Cleeve Hill near Faversham, in Kent.

And it was a record year for rooftop solar panels, with around 250,000 new small installations registered with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme.

WITH 2025 will be the UK's sunniest year on recordConditions were ideal for UK solar panels to benefit from the long sunny days of spring and summer.

“Solar is probably a bigger part of the system than we expected, given that its cost has come down so much,” said Michael Grubb, professor of energy and climate change at University College London.

Renewable energy sources can generate significant amounts of electricity under suitable conditions. On around a third of days in 2025, at least half of Britain's electricity will come from renewable sources, according to BBC analysis of Neso data.

But the UK's electricity grid often remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

Analysis of Neso data shows that more than 77 TWh of gas was generated. – approximately 27% – of electricity compared to 72 TWh in 2024.

The increase could be due to several factors, including Britain importing slightly less electricity from Europe, a decline in nuclear generation, the closure of its last coal-fired power station in 2024 and rising electricity demand.

Rising gas prices have made electricity in Britain slightly more polluting in 2025 than in 2024, according to Neso.

In 2025, for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity, 126 g of electricity will be generated. global warming carbon dioxide emissions are up on average from 124 g/kWh in 2024, but down from 505 g/kWh in 2012.

With the exception of wind and solar power, Neso's figures only cover generation connected to the main transmission grid.

These do not include smaller gas, biomass and hydro operators that generate electricity locally, but they contribute a relatively small share of total UK electricity generation.

A separate analysis of UK government data by climate website Carbon Brief, which includes these smaller sources and Northern Ireland, shows very similar trends to Neso's data for the UK. This includes a new record for renewable energy and a slight increase in gas production.

The government has set its “clean energy” target: by 2030, 95% of all electricity generated in the UK will come from renewable sources and nuclear power.

In 2024, clean sources produced nearly three-quarters of the year's total electricity production, according to government data.

These figures differ from Neso's figures, which include imports as well as some gas production that does not fall under the government's definition of clean energy.

Government data for 2025 won't be released until later this year, but the amount of gas still present in the electricity sector shows there's still a lot to be done.

“There are still a significant number of periods in the year when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow, demand is high. […] and that's where the system is kind of forced to rely on gas power to meet demand,” Mr. Menon said.

He added that there are solutions to this problem. These include technologies such as batteries, which can store renewable electricity for use in less sunny and windy weather, as well as other low-carbon sources such as nuclear power, which can provide reliable power generation.

Another challenge to achieving the clean energy goal is the need to modernize the electrical grid, in part to connect new renewable energy sources and move their power around the country.

Sometimes the grid cannot handle all the renewable electricity that could be produced, resulting in wind farms are paid to reduce their output.

Upgrading the network should help reduce the problem, but upgrades increase costs in the short term.

This could offset some of the savings from some of the cheapest renewable energy sources that are starting to displace gas power, Professor Grubb said.

But he said he still expects bills to start falling in coming years – partly due to renewable energy, but also as gas prices fall from recent highs.

In response to the renewables data, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “After years of delays and underinvestment, the current government is keeping its promise to take back control of the UK's energy supply through clean, home-grown energy.”

This would “protect households from volatile fossil fuel markets,” he added.

But shadow energy minister Claire Coutinho has called on the government to scrap the clean energy target, arguing it is raising energy bills.

“Britain is producing more renewable energy than ever before, but people need to be aware of the extra costs that come with it,” she said.