Key Facts about: Supplementary Information
Fuel input for electricity generation: 1990 and 2006
United Kingdom
Between 1990 and 2006 total fuel use for electricity rose by 15 per cent from 76 to 87 million tonnes of oil equivalent.
The contribution of coal and oil in electricity generation decreased in the 1990s whilst that of natural gas increased. This trend has levelled off in recent years as coal prices have been more favourable compared to gas. The gap between the two has actually widened in 2006 due to gas prices increasing, making coal more favourable. Coal accounted for almost two-thirds of fuel used in 1990; this had fallen to 41 per cent in 2006, whilst the contribution of gas increased from 1 per cent to 31 per cent of fuel in the same period.
The contribution of nuclear power peaked in 1998 at over 23 million tonnes (28 per cent), but in 2006 had fallen to be similar to the early 1990s contributing 20 per cent of electricity generated.
The contribution of other fuels (including renewables) has been small but increased by almost four times over the period.
Notes:
- Figures on fuel use for electricity generation can be compared by either using the volumes of fuel input to power stations as here, or use the amount of electricity generated and supplied by each fuel (fuel output);
- The fuel input basis takes no account of differences in how efficiently different fuel types are converted into electricity, or improvements in efficiency over time, but is used in here because data on a fuel output basis are not available back to 1990.
Percentage shares based on fuel outputs reduce the contribution of coal and nuclear, and increase the contribution of gas (by about 6 percentage points in 2005) compared with the fuel input basis, due to the higher conversion efficiency of gas. - Figures on a fuel output basis may be found (tables 5.3 and 5.6) in the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) on the BERR website. The fuel input for hydro or wind power is taken as directly equivalent to the electricity generated, and the fuel input for nuclear power as the electricity generated divided by the thermal efficiency of nuclear power stations (38 per cent in 2005).
Further Information:
- Data Tables:
- Download Chart Data: Microsoft Excel
- Links:
- BERR: Energy Group, data on energy usage and trends
- BERR: Energy Statistics
- BERR: Energy Trends
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Page last modified: 4 March 2008
Page published: 4 March 2008