Energy production and consumption

The UK consumed 1,889 terawatt-hours (TWh) of primary energy in 2025. That was 31% less than at its peak in 2001.

Oil (39%) and gas (36%) still make up most of this. Coal, which provided almost half of the UK's energy in 1970, now provides just 1%.

This measure of primary energy, though, overstates the role of fossil fuels in the country's final energy mix, because so much of their energy is wasted as heat when they are burned.

Each person in the UK used about 27,200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of primary energy in 2025. That's 42% less than in 2001, when it peaked at about 46,600 kWh.

Compared with other rich countries, the UK uses comparatively small amounts of energy per person: about a third as much as the United States, and less than Germany or France.

Energy intensity measures the amount of energy that's consumed per unit of GDP. It tracks how energy-intensive an economy is.

The UK now uses 75% less energy for each pound of GDP than it did in 1970.

This is from a combination of more efficient buildings and vehicles, and a structural shift from heavy industry to services, which use less energy for the same output. Part of this also reflects goods that were once made in the UK being imported instead.

Transport is the largest user of energy in the UK, consuming 640 TWh in 2025. That was 43% of the energy delivered to final users.

Homes used 396 TWh, services 248 TWh and industry 202 TWh.

Industry's energy use has fallen by more than 70% since 1970, as heavy industries such as steel and chemicals have declined.

Not all of the energy the UK consumes ends up being used. More than half of the 1,889 terawatt-hours (TWh) of primary energy consumed in 2025, was lost and wasted, mostly as heat: in power stations and refineries, and in car engines and boilers.

You can see this in the chart, which maps the flows of fuels on the left, to useful and wasted energy on the right.

Transport is the least efficient: only about 37% of the energy in fuel moves vehicles, with the rest lost as heat in engines. In homes, where most energy is used for heating, 86% is useful.

The UK generated 290 TWh of electricity in 2025. That's 75 times as much as in 1920, but less than at its peak of 395 TWh in 2003.

You can see this century-long time-series in the chart.

Each person in the UK used about 4,000 kWh of electricity in 2025.

This was down from a peak of 5,800 kWh in 2005.

For most of the 20th century, almost all of the UK's electricity came from coal: 97% in 1950, and still two-thirds in 1990.

Gas replaced a lot of it in the 1990s, and wind and solar have done so since the 2010s. The UK's last coal power station closed in 2024.

In 2025, renewables generated 53% of the UK's electricity: wind 30%, bioenergy 14% and solar 7%. Gas generated 32%, and nuclear 12%.

What is electricity in the UK used for?

You can see electricity consumption by sector in the chart. Homes, services and industry use roughly equal shares.

Transport, mostly railways and electric vehicles, uses a small but growing share.

In 2024, final energy consumption was about 20,100 kWh per person in the UK.

It was highest in Wales (at 25,500 kWh), 24,500 kWh in Scotland, 22,400 kWh in Northern Ireland and lowest in England, at 19,200 kWh.

In the map, you can see this data by local authority.

Areas with large industrial sites use far more energy per person: North Lincolnshire, with Scunthorpe's steelworks, used 115,000 kWh per person, and areas with oil refineries, such as Pembrokeshire, New Forest and Falkirk, 70,000 to 93,000 kWh.

Home energy use per person is highest in the Scottish islands and Highlands, where homes are colder and often heated with oil, and lowest in inner London.

The chart shows the net exports of electricity in each of the UK's nations. This is the amount each sends to the rest of the UK and Europe, minus what it imports. Positive values mean it's a net exporter, and negative values mean it's a net importer.

Scotland generates much more electricity than it uses: 54 TWh in 2025, against 28 TWh consumed. It sent a net of 21 TWh to England and Northern Ireland.

England is a net importer: in 2025 it took in a net 57 TWh from Scotland, Wales and Europe.

Energy statistics come from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's (DESNZ) Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) and Energy Consumption in the UK (ECUK). Energy is shown here in terawatt-hours (1 TWh is a billion kilowatt-hours).

Primary energy is energy before it is converted or used. Final energy is energy delivered to users, after losses in power stations and refineries. Neither includes fuels used as raw materials, such as oil for plastics. Following international convention, nuclear electricity is counted by the heat produced in the reactor, and wind, solar and hydro by the electricity they generate.

Electricity generation before 1996 is DESNZ's estimate from historical records of power station fuel use; official figures by fuel start in 1996.

Local and national figures come from DESNZ's subnational energy statistics and its figures on electricity generation and supply in each nation. International comparisons use the Energy Institute's Statistical Review of World Energy, which counts nuclear and renewable electricity differently from DESNZ.