More than 10,000 megawatts per hour of renewable energy were produced in Southampton last year, figures show, as the Prime Minister pledges a green industrial revolution across the UK.

PM Boris Johnson said the coronavirus crisis should be used as a catalyst to make the UK the world leader in offshore wind power generation, creating thousands of jobs in the process.

But with the plans focusing largely on offshore wind farms, the Solar Trade Association said solar energy has a significant role to play, and was “noticeably absent” from the speech.

Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show 15,477 megawatts per hour (around 15 gigawatts) of renewable electricity were generated in Southampton in 2019.

This was 14% more energy than the 14 GWh produced in 2014, the earliest year of data available.

The biggest producer of energy in Southampton last year was solar power, which generated 9,898 MWh – 64% of the total.

This was followed by sewage gas, which is created by combining sewage with bacteria (36%).

Renewable electricity generated around a third of the UK’s total energy last year (120,675 GWh) – almost double the amount it did in 2014.

Offshore wind farms, which are turbines located at sea, and onshore wind farms, based on land, were each responsible for 27% of the UK’s total, but the Government’s plan focuses largely on those in the water.

Downing Street said the £160 million investment programme will enable the sector to support up to 60,000 jobs by 2030, upping the target for offshore wind from 30 to 40 gigawatts.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Johnson said: “Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle – the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands.

“As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the UK is to wind – a place of almost limitless resource, but in the case of wind without the carbon emissions and without the damage to the environment.”

Behind wind farms (54%) and plant biomass facilities (21%), solar panels were the fourth biggest generator of renewable energy in the UK last year – with 11%.

Photovoltaic technology, as its known, also has great support from the public, with the Government’s own polls showing 86% of people support solar.