More 'Green' energy being generated in Northumberland

Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show 1,214.2 million megawatts per hour (around 1,214 gigawatts) of renewable electricity were generated in Northumberland in 2020.

This was nine per cent more energy than the 1,119 GWh produced the year before, and more than double the amount produced in 2014 – the earliest year of data available.

The biggest producer of energy in Northumberland last year was onshore wind farms, which generated 63% of the total – followed by plant biomass (17%), and offshore wind farms – which generated a further 14%.

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.

“The Government needs to 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.

He added: "This year alone we’ve attracted five new offshore wind factories to the UK, bringing jobs and investment to our industrial heartlands."