UK uses record amount of wind power in August

Last
week, RenewableUK announced that a new record was set a when wind power generated
60% of Britain’s electricity in the early hours of the day due to high winds
from storm Francis.

National
Grid ESO confirmed that at 1:30pm, on Wednesday August 26, wind met 59.9%
(14.2GW) of total power demand (23.7GW) in the country. The remaining power mix
at that time was made up of gas (18.8%), nuclear (15%), biomass (3,1%), imports
(2.5%) and hydro/others (0.7%).

This
new record surpasses the previous highest share for wind (59.1%) set recently
on Saturday, August 22. The UK currently has wind energy capacity of 24GW –
10.4-GW offshore and 13.6-GW onshore – and last year provided 20% of UK power. Rapid
growth is expected this decade, with offshore wind alone is expected to meet
over a third of the UK’s power needs, by 2030.

Ahead
of the company’s upcoming auction of contracts to secure new renewable
generation capacity next year, RenewableUK has stated that a high level of
ambition could deliver new investment of £20bn ($26.4bn USD) and possibly
support 12,000 jobs in the UK.

RenewableUK’s
Director of Strategic Communications Luke Clark, commented, “Renewables are
breaking records faster than anyone expected, and this new wind record is a
clear signal of the future of our energy system. We need to see a huge increase
in low carbon power to meet the UK’s net zero target and if we can ramp up
low-cost renewables in the short term, that will boost our economic recovery
and speed up the switch to low carbon heating, electric vehicle and investment
in new technologies like green hydrogen”.