A total 5.6 per cent of electricity generation was derived from renewable sources last year, the National Statistics Office said this morning.

It said that energy generation over the past decade amounted to an annual average of 2.2 million megawatt-hours.

In 2016, electricity generation dropped by 0.4 per cent compared to a year earlier. The highest power generation was recorded in 2007, with 2,296,296 megawatt-hours. This was followed by 2008 with 2,275,892 megawatt-hours.

In 2016, a total of 1.5 million megawatt-hours or 67.9 per cent were imported through the interconnector.

July and August feature the highest electricity demand, both registering an average of 402 and 403 megawatts respectively between 2007 and 2016. The highest annual average demand was registered in 2007 with 363 megawatts.

The lowest annual average demand was registerd in 2010 and amounted to 328 megawatts.

During the last four years, generation of energy from renewable sources registered a substantial increase, from 35,447 megawatt-hours in 2013 to 133,419 megawatt-hours in 2016.

In 2016, the majority of renewable energy (93.7 per cent) was produced from photovoltaic cells, while the remainder was derived from other sources.

Emissions from power plant sources dropped by 34.8 per cent over 2015, mainly due to the interconnector.