More 'Green' energy being generated in South Tyneside

Tens of thousands of megawatts per hour of renewable energy were produced in South Tyneside last year, new figures show.
More green energy being usedMore green energy being used
More green energy being used

Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show 22,786 megawatts per hour (around 23 gigawatts) of renewable electricity were generated in the area in 2020.

This was 34% more than the 17 GWh produced the year before, but 30% less than the amount produced in 2014 – the earliest year of data available.

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The biggest producer of energy in South Tyneside last year was sewage gas, created by combining sewage with bacteria, which generated 55% of the total – followed by solar power (40%), and onshore wind farms (4%).

Environmental groups have urged the Government to expand on the success of a significant rise in green energy as the UN Cop26 climate talks take place in Glasgow.

Nationally, 134,600 GWh of renewable energy was generated in 2020 – a 13% rise on the year before, and renewables outstripped fossil fuels for the first time last year, representing 43% of total generation.

Mike Childs, head of policy at the environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, said: “Far too much of our energy still comes from climate-wrecking coal, gas and oil, and this has to change.

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“The Government must rapidly accelerate our use of renewables to end our reliance on dirty fossil fuels.”

Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said wind power is a "British success story" and a key part of the Government's aim to decarbonise the UK’s whole electricity system by 2035.