Britain is generating more of its energy from zero carbon sources than fossil fuels for the first time since the industrial revolution in a landmark tipping point, National Grid has confirmed.

In what was described as an historic milestone, and a watershed moment, the amount of electricity coming from wind, solar, nuclear and hydro power overtook coal and gas by more than one percentage point at the end of May.

Coal and gas now generates 46.7 per cent of Britain’s power network, but zero carbon has pushed ahead to 47.9 per cent.

In 2009, three-quarters (75.6 per cent) of electricity production came from fossil fuels and just 22.3 per cent was zero-carbon. A decade ago coal alone made up one third of Britain’s energy supply but today it is less than three per cent.

Energy from wind has increased dramatically from 1.3 per cent a decade ago to 18.8 per cent in 2019.

John Pettigrew, CEO of National Grid, said: “The incredible progress that Britain has made in the past ten years means we can now say 2019 will be the year zero carbon power beats fossil fuel fired generation for the first time.”