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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will estimate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that have been saved in each year since on-shore wind farms have been commercially deployed in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

The table attached shows the amount of carbon dioxide emissions estimated to have been saved in each year since onshore wind farms have been commercially deployed in the UK. This is calculated as the amount of generation from onshore wind multiplied by the carbon dioxide emissions factor for the fossil fuel mix for the corresponding year.

NB. Data for 1990 to 1995 are not available, so the 1996 emissions factor has been used; data for 2015 are not yet available, so 2014 has been used.

Sources:

Onshore wind generation, 1990-2014:

Digest of UK Energy Statistics, table DUKES 6.1.1, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/renewable-sources-of-energy-chapter-6-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes

Onshore wind generation, 2015: Energy Trends table ET 6.1, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-section-6-renewables

Carbon Dioxide emissions factors (all fossil fuels): DUKES 2015 Chapter 5, Table 5D, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electricity-chapter-5-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes