Why the UK’s electricity grid is getting cleaner
And what it means for your organisation
The UK government updates its greenhouse gas conversion factors yearly. These are the numbers organisations use to work out the carbon footprint of the energy they use. This year’s update tells an encouraging story about where our electricity comes from.
If you’ve ever filled in a carbon reporting form, you’ll have met these (admittedly confusing) conversion factors before, even if you didn’t know their name. They translate a kilowatt-hour of electricity into a figure for the greenhouse gases released in generating it. Coal has now dropped out of the calculation altogether, and every year the mix leans further towards renewables.
Back to science class: what’s a greenhouse gas, and why “CO2e”?
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. Some, like carbon dioxide, hang around for a very long time once released, mostly from burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide gets most of the attention because there’s so much of it, but methane and nitrous oxide also contribute to global warming. “CO2e”, or carbon dioxide equivalent, is just a way of adding up the warming effect of all these gases and expressing it as a single number.
Plot the UK’s electricity mix from 2015 to today and (although not shown on the graph above) you can watch coal disappear entirely. The last coal power station closed back in September 2024) and gas is slowly losing its grip on the grid.
2025 marked the first year that gas no longer supplied the largest share of our electricity. The early data for 2026 takes that further still: the first quarter of the year saw renewables supply just over half of Britain’s electricity, up sharply on the same period the year before, largely thanks to a record-breaking few months for wind power. Add nuclear into the mix and low-carbon sources accounted for well over 60% of everything the grid produced.
Wind and solar capacity has been built out steadily for years, and the reporting is starting to show what that investment looks like in practice.
Why this matters for your organisation
A cleaner grid is good news for everyone of course, but it also changes the maths on some decisions worth revisiting:
- Electrifying heating or your vehicle fleet (if you have one) looks better every year. As the grid gets cleaner, the emissions saving from swapping a gas boiler for a heat pump, or a diesel van for an electric one, gets bigger too.
- Generating your own renewable electricity still beats buying green power from the grid. Solar PV on your own roof gives you a fixed, predictable saving on both bills and emissions, rather than one that shifts with the weather and the wholesale market.
- Your carbon reporting figures will shift even if your energy use doesn’t. Worth remembering when you’re comparing this year’s numbers to last year’s.
Want to make the most of a cleaner grid?
Our free energy assessments help Oxfordshire organisations work out exactly where solar, heat pumps and other low-carbon upgrades would make the biggest difference, and our Green Fund can put up to £10,000 towards making it happen.
Get up to £10,000 match funding with our Green Fund.
Our Green Fund has now pledged over £125,000 in match funding towards energy efficiency upgrades and renewable installations for 12 organisations across Oxfordshire.
We’re helping organisations like yours install solar panels, heat pumps, and EV charging as well as upgrades to insulation, windows, equipment and more. We can provide up to £10,000 in match funding towards any suggestion made by our experts in your fully funded carbon reduction report.