The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published its latest set of energy statistics on 28 July. Key figures include:

• In 2010, the UK produced 5.3% less energy than the previous year, but consumption was up by 3.2%.
• Since 1999, primary energy production has fallen by 46.9% and we currently import 28% of the energy we use.
• The electricity generation mix for 2010 was 47% gas, 28% coal and 16% nuclear. 6.8% came from renewable sources and the rest from Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plants.
• 10% of our energy came from low carbon sources in 2010, with two thirds from nuclear power.
• Renewable energy generation as a proportion of our total energy production was up by 0.1% on 2009.
• Our overall renewable energy capacity has increased by 15%. This includes increases of 42% for offshore wind, 16% for onshore wind and 9% for biomass.
• In 2010, the energy industries accounted for 3.9% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 9.9% of our total investment and 51.8 of our industrial investment.
• In 2010, the energy industry directly employed 173,000 people. Numbers have been increasing since 2008, driven by a growth in the electricity production industry.    

Wilding says: ‘The investment, employment and renewable energy generation figures look promising for all parts of the energy industry, including the construction side. Hopefully we can step up our domestic production by building new power plants so we can rely less on imports in the future.’

Source:DECC