Northern Ireland (NI) hit a new renewable energy milestone in 2020.

From January to December, 49.2% of total electricity consumption in NI was supplied by renewable sources.

The news comes as the latest figures from NI’s Department for the Economy were published, showing an increase of 5.6% from the previous year.

Approximately 7,416 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity was consumed in NI during 2020, 3,651GWh of which was generated from renewable sources located in NI.

Sources

NI has a diverse range of renewable electricity generators.

However, the vast majority of renewable electricity generated in NI comes from wind sources.

As such, 84.9% of the total renewable electricity was generated from wind. This compares with 84.5% from 2019.

Approximately 5.4% came from biogas, 4.2% from biomass, 3.4% from solar panels and 1.5% from landfill gas.

Milestone

“This remarkable milestone demonstrates the commitment from all those in the renewables industry to help reach our decarbonisation targets, while at the same time creating jobs, supporting the economy and local communities," head of the RenewableNI Steven Agnew commented.

“The focus now needs to be on how we can increase these benefits further. By setting an 80% target for renewable electricity generation by 2030, we can stimulate over £1bn of direct investment in new projects,” Agnew concluded.