UK Wind Farms Provide 44% Of Electricity Demand

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

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.

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

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.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

Joshua S Hill has 4403 posts and counting. See all posts by Joshua S Hill