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UTILITY WEEK | 13TH - 19TH OCTOBER 2017 | 21 Operations & Assets ble sites (excluding PV), followed by the East of England and the South East. In Yorkshire and Humber, more than half (57 per cent) of capacity was from biomass and waste, mostly from the Drax Group's biomass plants, 28 per cent from wind and 11 from PV. In the East of England, 48 per cent of capacity was from PV and 40 per cent from wind. In the South East, 52 per cent of capac- ity was from PV in 2016, 33 per cent from wind and 8 per cent from biomass and waste. "The increase in renewables on the system and the falling costs of these tech- nologies is great news for consumers and meeting our carbon targets, but we need a mix of energy technologies to maintain system stability," says chief executive Drax Group Andy Koss. "At Drax we have upgraded half of the power station to sustainable biomass from coal and now produce 17 per cent of the UK's renewable power – enough for four million households. "Biomass is the only renewable technol- ogy that can be flexed up and down to meet demand and provide the balancing services National Grid expects to be increasingly important as more intermittent renewables come online and demand for power rises. At Drax we're looking at ways to reduce the costs of this technology," adds Koss. The Energy Trends report also highlighted the growing role of smaller energy suppli- ers, many of whom offer green energy tariffs, as a force for renewables growth in the UK. According to the report, the market share of smaller suppliers has increased from 2.7 per cent in 2010 to 14.2 per cent in 2016. Over the same time period the aggregated market share of the largest nine energy sup- pliers fell from 96 per cent in 2010 to 85.8 per cent last year. "More and more people are switching from the big six to smaller suppli- ers and this is only going to increase," says Bulb Energy co-founder Hayden Wood. "It's really quite simple – we continue offering excellent customer service, while the big six keep facing complaints," he says. "Until they address these fundamen- tal issues, we think they'll continue losing homes to smaller suppliers like Bulb." Overall, the Energy Trends report paints a picture of a renewables sector that has weathered the storm of subsidy cuts and continued to grow, regardless of central gov- ernment support. With more projects coming online in the next few years and the recent developments with the price of offshore wind in the CfD auction, the message is clear: renewables are here to stay, they are a vital part of the UK's energy mix, and they cannot be ignored. 2017 Q2: A RECORD-BREAKING PERIOD Government's Energy Trends report shows that between April and June this year: 29.8% of the UK's energy was generated by renewables, up from 26.9 per cent, in Q1 2017. Up by 4.4 percentage points The new quarterly renewables record is up 4.4 percentage points on the same period in 2016. 22.5TWh The amount of electricity generated from renewable in Q2 2017. ENERGY TRENDS ELECTRICITY GENERATED BY FUEL TYPE Source: BEIS SHARE OF ELECTRICITY GENERATION Source: BEIS 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Generation (WWh) 2014 2015 2016 2017 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Coal Gas Nuclear Renewables Oil & other Coal 2.1% Coal 5.9% Oil & other 3.2% Q2 2017 Q2 2016 Oil & other 3.3% Renewables 25.3% Renewables 29.8% Nuclear 23.6% Nuclear 21.3% Gas 44.2% Gas 41.36%