Almost 70% of energy used in 2016 came from interconnector

● 5.6% of energy generated by renewable sources

In 2016, 5.6% of electricity generation was derived from renewable sources, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Over the past decade energy generation amounted to an annual average of 2.2 million megawatt-hours.

In 2016, the generation of electricity decreased by 0.4% compared to a year earlier. The data shows that the highest power generation was recorded in 2007, with 2,296,296 megawatt-hours followed by 2008 with 2,275,892 megawatt-hours.

Approximately 30% of the electricity generated in a year occurs between July and September.

During 2016, a total of 1.5 million megawatt-hours or 67.9% were imported through the interconnector.

July and August feature the highest electricity demand, both registering an average of 402 and 403 megawatts respectively during the period 2007-2016. The highest annual average demand was registered in 2007 with 363 megawatts. On the other hand, the lowest annual average demand was registered in 2010 and amounted to 328 megawatts.

During the last four years, generation of energy from renewable sources has registered a substantial increase, from 35,447 megawatt-hours in 2013 to 133,419 megawatt-hours in 2016. During the latter year, the majority of renewable energy (93.7%) was produced from photovoltaic cells, while the remainder was derived from other sources.

In 2016, emissions from power plant sources dropped by 34.8% over 2015, mainly due to the use of the interconnector.