UK Wind Farms Provide 44% Of Electricity Demand

The wind was blowing strong across the UK on Saturday as the country’s wind turbines generated a new record of 14.3 gigawatts by the end of the day, and accounting for as much as 44.5% of total electricity demand during the mid- to late-afternoon.

Sarah Merrick, founder of onshore wind start-up ANSA Energy, highlighted the great day UK wind energy was having on Twitter using information provided by Drax Electric Insights, which monitors the UK’s electricity generation.

Think this might be a new wind record. 13.9GW of generation, supplying a whopping 36.9% of the UK’s electricity! Can @NGControlRoom confirm? pic.twitter.com/RhWyP9pd7C

— Sarah Merrick (@SpeakSarahSpeak) March 17, 2018

The National Grid Control Room (@NGControlRoom) replied confirming Sarah Merrick’s suspicions that it was the highest metered wind output ever recorded.

Yes, it is the highest metered wind output ever recorded at 10664 MW, so including embedded/non-metered wind 13.9 GW.

— National Grid Control Room (@NGControlRoom) March 17, 2018

What’s most impressive, however, is that investigating Drax Electric Insights data for Saturday shows that 13.9 gigawatts (GW) and 36.9% was not even the highest achievement of the day. The day started out relatively even across the various electricity sources, with coal, gas, wind, and nuclear making up the lion’s share of demand. But as the day progressed, the contribution from coal and gas fell off considerably and wind energy took the lead, and by the end of the day was delivering over 14 GW of demand.

The strong wind generation continued through the night before softening in the morning but, as of writing, still accounts for over 30% of electricity generation in the UK.