The solar power industry reported its highest ever production of electricity last month (April). At 12:30 on Monday 20 April 9.68GW of power was recorded thanks to the combination of clear skies and cool temperatures - the optimal conditions for solar efficiency.
The statistics were released by the Solar Trade Association (STA). The data showed that maximised levels of solar generation ensured the delivery of a new coal-free record period for the grid.
The STA announced that coal power plants have been offline since midnight on Friday 10 April 2020, and since then the UK has seen more than 1 terawatt hour of solar power put on the grid in that period – enough to boil water for over 25 billion cups of tea or drive 6.7 billion kilometres in a Nissan Leaf.
The bumper generation levels delivered over 11% of UK electricity demand and set both a new daily peak generation record on Monday 20 April 2020 as well as a weekly generation record at 485.41GWh.
Over first 28 days of April, the use of coal for generating electricity accounted for only 0.7% of UK power, compared to more than 57% from low-carbon sources. For further details visit The Solar Trade Association.