While many people across Great Britain will be hoping for snow on Christmas Day, engineers in the
National Energy System Operator (NESO) control room are looking for something different — a ‘green’ Christmas. If the weather remains mild and windy, this festive season could see the lowest carbon intensity ever recorded on 25 December.
Zero-carbon sources such as wind and solar could provide a larger share of Britain’s electricity than ever before as families cook Christmas dinners and settle down for festive television. Last year, more than 40% of electricity generation on Christmas Day came from renewables, compared with just 1.7% in 2009. This year, Britain has added an extra 2GW of wind and 3GW of solar capacity, taking total renewables to a record 53GW. Battery storage has also grown significantly, with 8.9GW now available to store clean energy for dispatch when needed — an increase of 3.1GW this year alone.
Lower-than-average energy demand on Christmas Day, combined with this surge in renewable generation and storage, could make 2025 Britain’s ‘greenest’ Christmas yet. The current record was set in 2023, with a carbon intensity of 30 million grams of CO
2 — five-times less than in 2018.
Craig Dyke, director of system operations at NESO, said: “A far cry from the smoggy Dickensian scenes of a ‘Christmas Carol’, seasonal festivities in Britain today are more likely to be powered by clean homegrown sources of renewable energy. 2025 saw us run our electricity grid at 97.7% zero-carbon for the first time in history — and this Christmas there is the possibility we will see the lowest-ever carbon intensity on the network on the big day itself. So, as you tuck into your turkeys, binge on festive telly, or charge your new gadget, one thing is for sure — the engineers working in our control room will not be hoping for a white Christmas, but an even greener one.”
Britain also broke renewable generation records earlier this month, with wind power hitting 23.8GW on 5 December — enough to light up nearly three billion strings of LED fairy lights. Solar generation also reached an all-time high this year, exceeding 14GW for the first time.