A total of 8,877 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green electricity were generated in the first quarter of this year, 17% more than in the same period of 2018. The bulk of this power – 5,792 GWh – came from onshore wind farms, the figures from the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show.

Overall, the amount of renewable energy generated was enough to power around 88% of Scottish households for a year, the Scottish Government said.

Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the sector is going from “strength to strength”. The BEIS data also shows renewable energy capacity in Scotland rose from 10.4 gigawatts (GW) in March 2018 to 11.3 GW in March this year. Electricity exports from Scotland were at their highest since the last three months of 2017, rising to 4,543 GWh, the equivalent of enough energy to power more than 1.1 million homes for a year. Across the UK, the total amount of electricity produced from renewable sources – which also include hydro power, biomass and solar electricity – increased from 28.5 terawatt hours (TWh) to 31.1 TWh.