It’s a windy and quite sunny afternoon across the UK. At 14.00, this was the composition of electricity output. Fossil fuels are down at 40% of the total. This may be a record low for the daytime hours.

Wind is providing about 7.4 GW and solar about 4.5 GW. (Most wind output is directly measured, ‘embedded’ wind is not and is a National Grid estimate). Add in hydro and biomass and total renewables output is running at 13.5 GW, compared to 15.4 GW for fossil fuels. At this moment renewables are providing over 35% of UK electricity. Figures for PV are from Solar Forecast (www.solarforecast.co.uk).

Nuclear gives us 7.3 GW and the France interconnector about 2.0 GW. Assume that this power is all fossil free and 60% of UK electricity – for a few hours until the wind and sun fade – is low-carbon.