The Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Sector
Renewables and clean technologies such as composting, electric vehicles and energy storage are a significant part of the UK economy and a cornerstone of the modern energy system.
Economic Value
The renewables and clean tech sector employs around 140,000 people, with many jobs outside of the south east (Source: REA, 2024)
According to the CBI, the wider green sector employs almost 1 million people across the UK involved in the green economy transition (Source: CBI, 2025)
Renewables such as wind have been proven in academic research from UCL to have saved UK energy bill payers £104 billion since 2010 due to displacing more expensive, volatile fossil fuels (UCL, 2025)
Energy and Circular Economy Benefits
Renewables provide over half of all the UK’s electricity – 50.4%, as of 2024. (Source: DESNZ Energy Trends, 2025)
Renewables as a whole provide almost 10% of the entire energy demand of the country – across power, heat and transport (Source: DESNZ Energy Trends, 2025)
Renewables have completely replaced coal in the system – with no coal used to generate power since the end of 2024 (Source: DESNZ Energy Trends, 2025)
The industry created around 2 million tonnes of quality composts, from around 4 million tonnes of waste, avoiding this going to landfill (Source: REA, 2024)
Almost 5 million tonnes of quality biofertiliser produced in 2023 – replacing fossil fuel fertilisers (Source: REA, 2024)
There are now over a million EV cars on the roads (Source: SMMT, 2025)
Over 1 in 5 new cars sold are now electric vehicles (22.1% as of September 2025), and when taken with hybrid (which use both batteries and a petrol or diesel engine) car sales, over half of new cars sold are electric or hybrid models (Source: SMMT, 2025)
The renewable fuel content of petrol at the pump has doubled since 2021, at 10%, up from 5% before that date (Source: DfT, 2025)
In Europe, over a quarter of heat used is supplied from renewables – mostly bioenergy and heat pumps, with countries like Sweden showing what is possible, at over 65% renewable heating supplies (Source: IEA, 2025)
The UK has further to go to decarbonise heating supplies but 2% of UK households rely on renewables for either all or part of their heating, and heat pump installs have increased 45% from 2024 to 2025, reaching a record level. Biomass still provides almost half of domestic renewable heating supplies (Source: DESNZ, Ofgem, 2025)
Public Support
80% of the UK public support the use of renewables to provide energy, according to Government statistics, with only 4% against (Source: DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker, summer 2025)
Overall 79% of the country are concerned about climate change, and 91% of people are aware of Net Zero. More people expect a positive impact from the energy transition in the longer term than a negative one, showing the public value action on renewables (Source: DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker, summer 2025)
