GCSE Geography | UK Energy Mix (Resource Management - UK Overview 7)

Despite increasing demand for electricity in the UK, energy consumption has fallen in recent years. This is due mainly to the decline of heavy industry and improved energy conservation. Low-energy appliances, better building insulation and more fuel-efficient cars have resulted in a 60% fall in energy use by industry and a 12% fall in domestic energy use.

Our energy mix has also changed – this is the range and proportions of different energy sources.

In 1990 – three-quarters of energy came from coal and oil (fossil fuels)....

Fossil fuels take millions of years to form and are non-renewable, meaning that they will eventually run out - they are finite. They have to be burned to produce heat, power transportation or generate energy in power stations, which produces carbon dioxide which contributes to the greenhouse effect and climate change.

In 2007 there was an equal mix of coal, gas and nuclear...

Uranium is used to produce nuclear energy - the heat it produces drives a turbine in a nuclear reactor to make electricity. Nuclear energy emits minimal carbon dioxide during production, so is better for the environment than fossil fuels. However, there are concerns over the processing and long-term storage of nuclear waste, as well as the risk of accidents. Supplies of uranium are finite so will run out eventually.

Since 2014 we have seen renewable sources growing fast....

Renewable energy is provided by sources that will not run out such as the sun, wind, tides, geothermal (heat from underground) and biomass (from burning organic material). These are considered green sources of energy because they don't give off carbon dioxide during energy generation. The biggest barriers to renewable energy production are: that it is dependent on environmental conditions, the technology is fairly expensive, and it doesn't have the capacity to produce huge amounts of energy.

In the past decade the government has offered subsidies for wind and solar energy in a bid to increase the proportion of energy produced (although this has recently stopped) - this has seen the share of energy produced by renewable sources increase. We currently generate around 30% of energy from renewable sources, with wind and solar providing the highest share of this. This energy mix changes from day to day, for example during winter months you will see a higher proportion of wind energy, as the wind strength tends to be higher, and in the summer the proportion of solar energy will be much higher because of the increase in sunshine hours.

You can see the current live energy mix for today here.

Energy security

This is the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price. The UK is no longer self-sufficient in terms of energy – ¾ of UK reserves of oil and natural gas have been exhausted, and we import around 1/3 of our energy sources, which affects our energy security. Particularly as at times of low supply prices will rocket. We do still have quite a lot of gas and oil reserves – however these tend to be hard to access, e.g. Mariner oilfield 150km from the Shetlands, which is very remote, and as a result oil production has declined by 6% each year for the last decade.

Shale gas

The UK has rich reserves of natural gas trapped deep underground in shale rocks. To extract the gas, high-pressure liquid (water, sand and chemicals) is used to fracture the shale and release the gas - this is called fracking and is highly controversial as people are scared that it could trigger earthquakes, pollute underground water sources, and it is also very expensive! Click here for more information.

Coal

Concerns of greenhouse gas emissions and old coal-fired power stations, along with the decline of heavy industry, has led to a steady decline in coal. But, we have several decades of fossil fuels left, and we import a lot of coal cheaply - three-quarters of our coal. In 2022 the USA was the largest exporter of coal to the UK with a share of 45%. This was followed by the Australia with 13% and the European Union with 11%.

The UK government set itself a deadline of 2025 to phase out coal-fired electricity production, however in 2022 it bought forward this target to October 2024, showing a commitment to lowering carbon emission based on agreements made at COP26 and the Paris Accord of 2015.