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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Renewable energy poised to overtake nuclear in the UK

The contribution of renewables towards keeping the lights on more than doubled from 6.8 per cent in 2010 to 14.9 per cent in 2013, according to the Office of National Statistics. Nuclear power, at 19 per cent, is in slow decline – no new power stations have been built since 1995, when it contributed more than 25 per cent of the UK's electricity. Onshore wind turbines delivered a third of the country's renewable electricity in 2013, with offshore wind rising fast and accounting for 21 per cent. A plan approved last week for the world's largest offshore wind farm – 400 turbines covering more than 1100 square kilometres of the shallow waters of the Dogger Bank in the North Sea – would add almost two-thirds to existing offshore generating capacity of 4000 megawatts. Read more at http://www.newscientist.com