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Renewable electricity generation

Statistics about renewable electricity generation and capacity in the North East

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Introduction

Each year the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes Regional Renewable Statistics. This is a statistical relase that includes sub-national information about total renewable electricity generation, the number of generating sites and their capacity. The information is broken down by technology type.

Unfortunately, the data is not published for English devolved administration areas or for LEP areas. The main geography used covers the nine English Government Office (GO) regions, including the North East region. These are areas that were covered by the GOs before their abolition in 2010.

Statistics are also provided for local authority areas. However, generation totals for some source types in many of these areas have been suppressed to avoid identifying the output of individual sites. 

This page, therefore, includes information about capacity and sites in the North East LEP area, built up from local authority totals. However, for electricity generation, it focuses on the larger North East region.

Renewable energy generation in the North East region

Key points:

  • In 2022, the North East region generated 3,954 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity from renewable sources
  • most of this was generated by sites in the onshore wind and "other bioenergy" technology groups. The latter includes anaerobic digestion; municipal solid waste; animal and plant biomass
  • the 2022 total was 31% lower than in 2021, driven by a 48% decrease in electricity produced by "other bioenergy" sites. The totals are subject to further revisions and the reasons for such a sharp decrease are unclear at the moment
  • about 40% of the electricity generated in the North East region in 2022 was identified as being from one of the seven local authority areas within the North East LEP area. About 7% was identified as being from Tees Valley sites, with the location of the remaining 53% being suppressed to avoid identifying data for individual sites 
  • in 2022, sites in the North East region generated about 4.6% of England's electricity from renewable sources. This included over 18% of the total from hydro and over 16% of the total from onshore wind
  • solar energy generated a much smaller percentage of the electricity produced in the North East region than nationally, with only 6.5% of onshore production from this source compared to 23% for England as a whole
  • despite the decrease in the latest year, the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources in the North East region was still more than six times higher in 2022 than it was in 2008. Nationally, the total was more than eight times higher.

Capacity in the North East

Key points:

  • The total capacity of North East renewable electricity generating sites in 2022 was 1,175 MW
  • this was 1.2% higher than in 2021, due to an increase in the capacity from solar energy generation sites
  • more than three quarters of the 2022 capacity was from onshore wind and "other bioenergy" sites, with the plant biomass generation making up most of the latter
  • about 69% of the latest North East capacity total was from sites in Nortumberland, with 20% from sites in County Durham and 11% from sites in Tyne and Wear
  • more specifically, over 38% of North East capacity in 2022 was from "other bioenergy" sites in Northumberland; about 23% was from onshore wind sites in Northumberland; and almost 12% was from onshore wind sites in County Durham
  • there was a step change in North East renewable electricity generating capacity in 2018 with the opening of the Lynemouth biomass plant in Northumberland. Capacity in that year was 65% higher than in 2017. 

Comparisons of capacity

Key points:

  • In 2022, the North East renewable electricity generation capacity was equivalent to 3.5% of England's total capacity
  • the North East was particularly important for hydro, onshore wind and "other bioenergy" generation, with 17.6%, 13.7% and 7.8% of England's capacity, respectively
  • North East onshore capacity particularly focused on biomass and waste (41% of the total) and onshore wind (37%) in 2022
  • however, the North East had a smaller percentage of capacity for solar generation than nationally (16% compared to 55%)
  • when taking account of the number of households, North East capacity was the highest among the eight English core city areas in 2022. However, it was still lower than the national equivalent rate
  • the latest North East capacity was about 2.3 higher than in 2014, a similar increase to nationally.

North East sites

Key points:

  • There were about 43.500 solar photovoltaic sites in the North East in 2022
  • on a per household basis this was the third highest total among the eight core city areas in 2022
  • the North East per household rate was similar to that of England excluding London
  • the latest number of North East solar photovoltaic sites was just over 1.8 times higher than in 2014, a slightly lower percentage increase than nationally
  • there were 302 other renewable electricity generating sites in the North East in 2022, most of which were onshore wind sites
  • this total was 51 higher than in 2014, with the increase being made up of 31 additional onshore wind sites, 9 new plant biomass sites, 6 additional hydro sites and 5 new anaerobic digestion sites.