Nuclear & biomass
Nuclear and biomass together form the 'other sources' category - both provide relatively steady, low-carbon baseload generation that varies little through the day.
- Current output
- 6.38GW
- Share of generation
- 22.1%
Breakdown
| Source | GW | % |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear | 3.86 | 13.4 |
| Biomass | 2.52 | 8.7 |
History
Nuclear & biomass output
Share of total generation
Nuclear & biomass output and share of total generation over the selected range.
About nuclear & biomass
Nuclear power stations run near-continuously and change output slowly, providing a stable low-carbon baseload. Several of Great Britain's nuclear stations are approaching the end of their operating lives, with new capacity under construction at Hinkley Point C.
Seven decades of nuclear power
Calder Hall in Cumbria, opened in 1956, was the world's first nuclear power station to supply electricity to a national grid at commercial scale. Britain went on to build a distinctive fleet of gas-cooled reactors (Magnox, then Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors) through the 1960s to 1980s, followed by a single pressurised water reactor, Sizewell B, which began generating in 1995.
Most of the Magnox and early AGR fleet has now closed, and several remaining AGR stations are scheduled to close through the late 2020s as they reach the end of their design lives. Hinkley Point C in Somerset, under construction since 2017, is intended to replace some of this retiring capacity when it eventually connects to the grid, alongside proposals for further new stations including Sizewell C.
From coal to wood pellets
Biomass generation in Britain today comes largely from power stations originally built to burn coal and later converted to burn wood pellets, most notably Drax in North Yorkshire - once the country's largest coal plant and now one of its largest renewable generators by output. Because trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, biomass burning is generally treated as low-carbon in official statistics, though the sustainability of large-scale wood pellet imports remains a subject of ongoing debate among scientists and policymakers.
Unlike nuclear, biomass plants can ramp output up and down within hours, which lets them play a more flexible balancing role alongside gas.
Sources
- Calder Hall nuclear power station and Sizewell B - Wikipedia.
- EDF Energy: Hinkley Point C - construction status and timeline.
- Drax Group: Drax Power Station - conversion from coal to biomass.
Records
Real, sourced figures - hand-checked periodically against the sources below (see "Last checked"), not computed live from this site's own stored history, which for a fresh install would only cover a few days or weeks rather than a full year.
- Highest nuclear generation (this year)5.9GW - 3 February 2026
- Highest biomass generation (this year)3.1GW - 18 January 2026
- First grid-scale nuclear stationCalder Hall, 1956
Source: National Energy System Operator (Elexon BMRS for the "this year" figures) and World Nuclear Association, UK country profile. Last checked: 4 September 2026.