Clean power targets

The Labour Party made a ‘national mission for clean power by 2030’ a key part of its manifesto for the 2024 general election.

In December 2024, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published its Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. This set out the government’s pathway to a clean power system and what it plans to do to achieve this. It included details of how the clean power target will be defined:

In a typical weather year, the 2030 power system will see clean sources produce at least as much power as Great Britain consumes in total over the whole year, and at least 95% of Great Britain’s generation; reducing the carbon intensity of our generation from 171gCO₂e/kWh [grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt hour] in 2023 to well below 50gCO₂e/kWh in 2030.

The action plan says that “The shift to a clean power system by 2030 forms the backbone of the transition to net zero”. This will initially be through cutting fossil fuel emissions from power generation and later through displacing fossil fuels in other sectors including transport and heating.

The government defines clean power as current generation from renewables and nuclear plus future low carbon technologies such as gas with carbon capture and storage. This briefing follows the government’s approach by using the term ‘clean power’ to refer to electrical energy generated from these low carbon sources.

Clean power 2030 targets

The government’s Clean Power Action Plan defined the 2030 target for the first time. It explained the target means Great Britain will produce enough clean power to meet its annual electricity demand, “backed up by unabated gas supply to be used only when essential”. This means moving to an electricity system with the following characteristics in a typical weather year:

• Metric 1a: Clean sources produce at least as much power as Great Britain consumes in total
• Metric 1b: Clean sources produce at least 95% of Great Britain’s generation
• Metric 2: Reduce the carbon intensity of electricity generation to below 50gCO2e/kWh

Sources: DESNZ, Energy Trends: UK renewables (Table 6.1), DESNZ, Energy Trends: UK Electricity (Tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.14)

How is clean power defined?

The action plan says that clean power (electricity) includes renewables (wind, solar and bioenergy), nuclear, gas with carbon capture and storage and hydrogen to power. The technical annex published alongside the action plan provides further detail on how clean power will be defined. Measurement of the targets will exclude generation produced by energy from waste and smaller combined heat and power plants which are described as “primarily solutions for waste management and industrial use” respectively.

UK clean generation

Source: DESNZ, Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2024 (electricity table 5.15 and renewables table 6.2)

Nuclear output has declined over time from almost 100 TWh in the late 1990s to just over 40 TWh in 2023. Renewable generation increased from just under 10 TWh in the late 1990s to 136 TWh in 2023.

Renewable output overtook nuclear output in 2014. The fastest period of growth for renewables was between 2012 and 2020, when the average increase was almost 12 TWh a year.

There was rapid growth in generation from bioenergy and onshore wind in the early 2010s. Growth in these sources stalled in the late 2010s and early 2020s, since when most of the increase in renewable output has been in offshore wind.

In 2023, clean power made up 92% of generation in Scotland, 57% in England, 43% in Northern Ireland and 34% in Wales. 

How much clean electricity do other countries produce?

Sweden and France have long produced nearly all their electricity from clean sources. In 2023, Sweden produced 40% of its generation from hydroelectric sources, 29% from nuclear and 21% from wind. In the same year, France produced 65% of its generation from nuclear 11% from hydroelectric sources and 9% from wind.

Denmark is notable for recording the largest consistent growth in clean energy generation, rising from 16% in 2000 to 87% in 2023. 58% of Denmark’s generation came from wind in 2023, the highest of any of the EU and G7 countries.

The UK government expects that most of the UK’s clean generation in 2030 will come from variable renewables: wind and solar. The National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) clean power pathways estimate that the total amount of clean generation from variable renewables in the UK will be between 77% and 82% of generation in 2030.

Many of the EU and G7 countries with the largest shares of clean generation rely on nuclear power or ‘firm’ renewables such as hydroelectric sources or bioenergy. Denmark stands out as having the highest share of variable renewable generation at 68% in 2023. 

Great Britain’s share of variable renewable generation would have to increase at a much faster rate than previously up to 2030 to meet the shares outlined in the NESO pathways. It would also need to increase at a faster rate for a sustained period of time than managed by any other G7 or EU country.

Sources of data on clean power

Official data on nuclear and renewable output and capacity is available at:

• Renewables statistics
• Electricity statistics

Quarterly updates on the progress of renewabes projects through the plannign system are produced in the Renewable Energy Planning Database: quarterly extract.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) published monthly data on the generation mix and carbon intensity of generation in Great Britain. It also produces annual summaries. Their data only covers larger generators in Great Britain so can be different from the official data which includes all generators and covers the whole of the UK.

There are a number of different wbsites and apps which give near-live data on the generation mix, electricity deman, imports/exports and carbon intensity. These include National Grid: Live by Kate Morley and the NESO app.