Wind generates record amount of electricity

Windfarms generated a record amount of electricity on Wednesday (28 November), according to National Grid.

The official figures from the grid show that Britain’s onshore and offshore windfarms hit a new high of 14.9 gigawatts (GW) between 6.00pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday evening.

Analysis conducted by Drax Electric Insights shows that this equated to 33 per cent of Britain’s electricity needs at a time of high demand.

This beat the previous record of 14.5GW set on 9 November.

National Grid said that overall on Wednesday, wind generated 32.2 per cent of Britain’s electricity, ahead of gas which provided 23.5 per cent.

Nuclear supplied 17.9 per cent, coal 8.7 per cent, biomass 8 per cent, imports 7.8 per cent and hydro 1.7 per cent.

On Thursday National Grid said wind generated 32 per cent of Britain’s electricity followed by gas at 25 per cent, while nuclear supplied 18.1 per cent, coal 9.1 per cent, biomass 7.1 per cent, imports 5.9 per cent, and hydro 2.0 per cent.

Emma Pinchbeck, executive director of Renewable UK, said: “It’s great to see British wind power setting new records at one of the coldest, darkest, wettest times of the year, providing clean energy for people as they came home, switched everything on, turned up the power and cooked dinner.

“As well as tackling climate change, wind is good for everyone who has to pay an electricity bill, as the cost of new offshore wind has fallen spectacularly so it’s now cheaper than new gas and nuclear projects, and onshore wind is the cheapest power source of all.”