Story · Energy map · about 2 min
Where Britain's renewable power really sits
DUKES lists the big power stations; the renewable projects layer lists individual sites. Add every technology together by council, and a different picture appears, of a handful of large, mostly rural authorities carrying most of Britain's renewable capacity.
One council ahead of the rest
First, what a megawatt is. One megawatt (MW) is a million watts: enough to keep about 10,000 old 100-watt light bulbs lit at once, or to boil about 330 three-kilowatt kettles together. A gigawatt (GW) is a thousand of them. Capacity is the most a site can produce at once; on average it makes less. Now the map: North Yorkshire has 3,116 MW of renewable capacity installed within it (wind, solar, hydro and biomass added together), more than any other council in the UK.
13 councils past the gigawatt mark
13 local authorities, out of 361 with a figure, each have more than 1,000 MW (1 GW) of installed renewable capacity: almost all large, low-density council areas with room for wind.
Compare with the individual sites
The renewable energy projects layer shows the same technology mix as individual dots rather than a council total. Switch it on alongside this one to see which real sites make up a council's figure.
65,082 MW, UK-wide
Altogether the 361 councils in this data carry 65,082 MW of renewable capacity, a UK-wide total, covering England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland alike, unlike DUKES's major-stations-only list.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why would rural councils hold more renewable capacity than cities?
- Is the council with the most capacity the one that benefits most? What would you want to find out?
Try it on the map: Compare the council map with the individual renewable sites. Do the biggest councils hold many small sites or a few large ones?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.