Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons the amount of renewable energy generated in the UK in 2016 was lower than that produced in 2015.

Electricity generation in the UK from renewable sources fell marginally by 0.2 per cent between 2015 and 2016, to 83.2 terawatt hours. Lower rainfall and wind speeds resulted in lower hydro and wind generation, more than offsetting a 16 per cent increase in total capacity, to 35.7 gigawatts in 2016. (Source: DUKES 2017)

Under the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, the cumulative total number of domestic accredited renewable heat applications in 2015 was 43,535, while the cumulative total number of domestic accredited renewable heat applications in 2016 was 52,048. Payments in the domestic scheme are paid on deemed, rather than metered heat.

The renewable heat generated and paid for on the non-domestic scheme in 2015 was 3,772 gigawatt hours, and the corresponding figure for 2016 was 6,041 gigawatt hours.

Further information on renewable heat deployment can be found on https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rhi-deployment-data-october-2017