July In Germany & Scotland Proving European Case For Renewables
Renewable electricity generation figures in both Germany and Scotland are making a strong case for the wider adoption of clean energy across Europe.
Scotland
According to analysis done by WWF Scotland on data provided by WeatherEnergy, wind energy provided 36% of Scotland’s electricity needs across July, delivering 660,117.23 MWh of electricity to the National Grid.
Specifically, wind energy generated 58% more electricity than July in 2014, which was the equivalent of enough electricity to meet the needs of 72% of homes in Scotland. In fact, on eight days out of July’s 31, wind energy generated enough electricity to supply 100% or more of Scotland’s residential electricity needs.
“It may have been among one of the wettest and windiest months in decades, but July also turned out to be a belter of a month for wind power in Scotland,” said WWF Scotland director, Lang Banks. “Thanks to a combination of increased capacity and much windier weather, output from turbines was up more than half compared to the same period as last year – supply equivalent to the electrical needs of 1.75 million homes.”
This follows in the tracks of many impressive months for the Scottish wind industry, as we’ve covered repeatedly over the last year or so.
Germany
Travel east across Europe into Germany, where for a few hours on July 25, the country’s record of power consumption accounted for by renewables rose from its previous 74% to 78%. Reports suggest that strong winds in the north — perfect for the bulk of Germany’s wind turbines — and sunny conditions in the south — where the majority of the country’s solar is installed — helped break the record.
These figures come via Craig Morris, the lead author of the website German Energy Transition.
According to Morris, including biomass and hydropower, Germany’s total renewable energy electricity output on Saturday afternoon was 47.9 GW (minus 8.75 GW of net power exports results in the aforementioned 78%).
There’s a lot more that can be said about both country’s respective renewable energy industries and the push for decarbonisation, but these very obvious and illustrative stories do a lot of work in explaining the role of renewable energy to the wider public. So spread it around — it’s news worth hearing.
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