Energy from renewable sources has passed another milestone. Time for ministers to wake up to its potential

Something important happened on the eve of election day. By lunchtime on Wednesday, power from wind, solar, hydro and wood pellet burning supplied 50.7 per cent of the UK’s energy.

It is the first time renewable sources have provided more electricity than coal and gas.

Hey, maybe there’s a chance our children might be able to live on a planet that isn’t burning up!

It is the third milestone for cleaner power passed in the space of just a few months. In May, the National Grid reported that solar had broken another record in the UK, providing 8.7 GW of power, or nearly a quarter (24.3 per cent) of the nation’s requirements. In soggy old Britain, that’s quite something.

Then there was no coal day in April, which was the first time in 130 years that Britain went a day without having to turn on its coal-fired power stations.

Coal was still accounting for 23 per cent of electricity generation as recently as two years ago, but had slid to just 9 per cent by last year.

Back to the most recent milestone, it should be pointed out that yesterday was unusual in that there was both a lot of sun and a lot of wind around, boosting the provision of power from both sources. The weather isn’t always so co-operative.

The chief disadvantage with energy from renewable sources is that the supply isn’t always reliable. But here’s the thing: the Grid has been working on ways to deal with that, and the fact that it has a habit of cutting out entirely on occasion. Energy storage has the potential to alleviate the problem.

Antediluvian right wingers always used to pooh pooh renewables. Some of the more low rent models still do. Just for tree huggers. Won’t ever provide a significant part of the UK’s energy needs. We’ve got to be practical. Go gas!

That knuckle headed argument is being disproved by things called facts.

Energy from renewable sources is an increasingly viable, and, crucially, an increasingly economic option despite the Conservative Government’s apparent, and inexplicable, desire to do everything possible to discourage and frustrate its rise (see the last budget and the changes to the tax treatment of solar power).

It can be generated without recourse to foreign powers, that might not always be friendly. You don’t have to worry about commodity markets moving against you and hiking bills as a result. It’s clean. Did I mention it's clean?

And, of course, the power produced is renewable (the clue is in the title).

Fossil fuel producers are wined and dined and cosseted. They bitch and moan about their tax treatment, but you’ll often find that they’re quietly subsidised if you look closely enough.

Renewable producers, by contrast, still seem to constantly have to prove themselves to avoid accusations from cavemen and women that it’s just for hippies. It isn’t.

As the Grid’s stats show, it’s here now, it’s making a contribution, it could yet make more of a contribution and improve the lives of all of us (not to mention the lives of our children who are going to inherit the mess we’re making). If the Government would just pull its head out of its navel. How about it?