Academic Task 1 model answer: Electricity generation by source

The table compares the proportion of a country's electricity produced from coal, natural gas, nuclear power and renewable sources in 2000, 2010 and 2020.

Overall, the country shifted decisively away from coal over the twenty-year period, while renewables grew from a negligible share to become a major source. By 2020, natural gas had overtaken coal as the largest single source of electricity.

In 2000, coal dominated the energy mix, generating just over half of all electricity (52%). Its share then fell steadily, to 41% in 2010 and to only 18% by 2020 — a decline of 34 percentage points. Nuclear power followed a similar but far gentler downward trend, slipping from a fifth of generation to 16%.

By contrast, the other two sources expanded. Natural gas rose consistently from 24% to 34%, ending the period as the leading source. The most dramatic change, however, was in renewables, whose share multiplied eightfold, from just 4% in 2000 to 32% in 2020. As a result, renewables generated almost as much electricity as gas by the end of the period and nearly twice as much as coal.