New figures publicized on Monday by WWF Scotland have revealed that wind energy generated the equivalent of 98% of the country’s electricity demand in October, or enough electricity to power nearly 5 million homes across the country.
Scotland has regularly been highlighted as a global wind energy leader, and over the last few years has repeatedly reported record-breaking months for wind generation. Now, it’s all very well and good to say that Scottish wind delivered 98% of the country’s electricity demand, but the specifics are a little different — hence why WWF Scotland always refers to it as wind providing “the equivalent of 98%” of Scotland’s electricity demand. That’s why it’s worth looking at the statistics provided by WWF Scotland, sourced from WeatherEnergy, part of the European EnergizAIR project:
- National Grid demand for the month – 1,850,512 MWh
- What % of this could have been provided by wind power – 98%
- Best day – 23rd October 2018, generation was 105,900.94 MWh, powering 8.72m homes, 356% of households. Demand that day was 45,274.5MWh – wind generation was 234% of that.
- Worst day – 18th October 2018 when generation was 18,377.71MWh powering 1,512,568 homes, 62% of households. Demand that day was 73,628.5MWh – wind generation was 25%
- How many days generation was over 100% of households – 27
- How many days generation was over 100% of demand – 16
“What a month October proved to be, with wind powering on average 98 per cent of Scotland’s entire electricity demand for the month, and exceeding our total demand for a staggering 16 out of 31 days,” said Dr Sam Gardner, acting director at WWF Scotland.
“These figures clearly show wind is working, it’s helping reduce our emissions and is the lowest cost form of new power generation. It’s also popular, with a recent survey also showing more and more people support turbines in rural areas. That’s why it’s essential that the UK Government unlocks market access for onshore wind at a time when we need to be scaling up electrification of heat and transport.”
Alex Wilcox Brooke, Weather Energy Project Manager at Severn Wye Energy Agency, added: “Octobers figures are a prime example of how reliable & consistent wind production can be, with production on 16 days outstripping national demand.”
Further, as Gardner and Brooke hinted at, October is becoming a true testament to the importance of Scotland’s wind power industry. This is highlighted by data for the past five Octobers:
| Wind output (MWh)
|
Load Factor | Number of homes | % of all households |
| October ‘18 | |||
| 1,820,950MWh | 43% | 4,834,594 | 197% |
| October ’17 | |||
| 1,727,603 | 40% | 4,586,759 | 189% |
| October ‘16 | |||
| 792,717MWh | 21% | 2,104,651 | 87% |
| October ‘15 | |||
| 625,341MWh | 17% | 1,660,270 | 69% |
| October ‘14 | |||
| 990,130MWh | 33% | 2,628,780 | 109% |
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