The ‘Electricity Consumption and Renewable Generation in Northern Ireland: Year ending March 2021’ report details the percentage of electricity consumption in Northern Ireland generated from renewable sources and includes information on the type of renewable generation used. The report reflects performance against the 2011-15 Programme for Government target which was to “Encourage achievement of 20% of electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2015” and the Executive’s 2010-20 Strategic Energy Framework which included a target to achieve 40% of electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020.

Main results:

  • For the 12 month period April 2020 to March 2021, 46.4% of total electricity consumption in Northern Ireland was generated from renewable sources located in Northern Ireland. This represents a decrease of 0.5 percentage points on the previous 12 month period (April 2019 to March 2020).
  • In terms of the volume of electricity consumption between April 2020 and March 2021, some 7,359 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of total electricity was consumed in Northern Ireland. Over the same period, some 3,413 GWh was generated from renewable sources located in Northern Ireland.
  • Reflecting the impacts of Covid-19, the five lowest monthly electricity consumption volumes on record were recorded between April and August 2020.
  • Of all renewable electricity generated within Northern Ireland over the 12 month period April 2020 to March 2021, 83.7% was generated from wind. This compares to 85.4% for the previous 12 month period (April 2019 to March 2020).
  • For the 12 month period ending March 2021, non-wind renewable electricity generation in Northern Ireland was 554.6 GWh.