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Wind turbines north of the border are producing enough electricity to power every home in Scotland, according to new figures.
Figures released by Weather Energy show that windfarms in Scotland produced 9.83TWh between January and June this year, which is enough to power 4.47 million homes.
According to Weather Energy, this is the equivalent of every home in Scotland and the north of England.
Last month (June) alone, wind output was 1.36TWh, which was enough to power 3.7 million homes.
WWF Scotland’s climate and energy policy manager, Robin Parker, said Scotland’s wind energy revolution is “clearly continuing to power ahead”.
“Up and down the country, we are all benefitting from cleaner energy and so is the climate,” added Parker.
“These figures show harnessing Scotland’s plentiful onshore wind potential can provide clean green electricity for millions of homes across not only Scotland, but England as well. It’s about time the UK government stepped up and gave Scottish onshore wind a route to market.”
Figures published in March by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show renewable energy generation for Scotland was 26.7TWh in 2018, a 6.1 per cent increase on the previous record in 2017.
The statistics also show that 2018 saw a big increase in electricity generated via offshore wind, with capacity and generation both more than doubling compared to 2017.
Generation increased from 616GWh in 2017 to 1,369GWh in 2018. Capacity has also increased from 246 MW to 623 MW.
“These figures really highlight the consistency of wind energy in Scotland and why it now plays a major part in the UK energy market,” added Weather Energy project manager, Alex Wilcox Brooke.
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