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UK RENEWABLE ENERGY DATA 

In December 2006 The Renewable Energy Foundation published the first issue of its Renewable Energy Data files (the RED Files). This is the 6th issue, which supersedes all previous versions, and adds recent generation data bringing the dataset up to December 2007. Site specific load factors for that year can now be calculated, and these are published here for the first time. The five data files are accompanied by five sector overview files, one for each technology area, first published with the third issue of the RED files. These will very shortly be updated with an overview for 2007.

Together, these ten documents provide the broadest available description of the performance of the renewable electricity sector in the United Kingdom, covering all generators registered under the Renewables Obligation, comprising some 900 stations. We believe that the provision of hard empirical data is essential in order to accelerate the sensible and responsible development and growth of the renewable energy sector, a matter of particular importance now that the United Kingdom's own stretching targets for electricity will be inflected by the still more dramatically ambitious European Union target for a 20% renewable share of final energy consumption.

The raw data for this project has been obtained from the Ofgem Renewables Obligation Certificate Register, which publishes data concerning the issue of Renewables Obligation certificates to renewable electricity generators. Ofgem's database is for recording purposes only, and is not designed to facilitate examination of the performance of individual stations or a technology sector. The Renewable Energy Foundation commissioned Oswald Consultancy Ltd to analyse the Ofgem database and re-present this public domain information in a user-friendly form, bringing it together with other public domain information concerning the generators.

The data is available only in electronic form, as five files, accompanied by a further five files giving an overview of the sector in 2006 (these overview files will be updated on an annual basis):

Further information, such as the installed capacities of the generators has also been obtained from Ofgem publications. All this information is already in the public domain in various formats. REF and Oswald Consultancy Ltd have taken all reasonable measures to ensure that this information and the subsequent analysis is correct (errors and omissions are excepted).

The Renewable Energy Foundation is a registered charity funding research into renewable and alternative energy technologies and policy. We have no political affiliation and no corporate membership. None of our work could take place if it were not for generous private donations. We wish to take this opportunity of thanking all our donors for their continuing support, and in particular Mr Vincent Tchenguiz, who has specifically funded the Renewable Energy Data project.

Campbell Dunford,

Chief Executive

John Constable,

Director of Policy and Research

June 2008