Engineering news
Wind energy has set new weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual generation records with 11% of the UK's electricity generated by wind last year – up 9.4% in 2014.
Onshore and offshore wind farms have also supplied their largest ever amounts of clean electricity to Britain’s homes, factories and offices, and wind provided enough electricity to meet the annual needs of more than 8.25 million homes – more than 30% of UK households - up from 6.7 million homes last year.
December 2015 saw a fresh monthly record set, with wind supplying 17% of Britain’s electricity demand at a time of the year when it’s needed most. The previous monthly record of 14% was set in January 2015 – another cold period of the year.
A new weekly record was also set in December, with wind providing 20% of the nation’s needs in the last week of the month - Christmas week - up from 19% in the second week of November.
Wind also broke the quarterly generation record in the three month period from October to December 2015, with 13% of the nation’s electricity demand met by wind - beating the previous 12% high in the first quarter of 2015.
Gordon Edge, director of policy for RenewableUK, said the figures were a "great start" to the new year for the industry, and the trend will likely continue through 2016 as the wind industry braces itself for a busy year of construction, with at least 1.2GW of onshore wind and 4.5GW of offshore wind to be under construction.
However, the withdrawal of financial support for the technology from the government may see many long-term projects at risk of cancellation, and RenewableUK therefore warned that onshore wind may face an uncertain future.
In October 2015, RWE, a sister company to RWE npower, announced it had stopped plans to invest in the Galloper offshore wind farm, which was being built in conjunction with SSE as an extension to the 500MW Greater Gabbard project off the coast of Suffolk.
Edge added that the 2015 records "demonstrates why the government should continue to support wind energy, as we’re delivering on our commitment to keep Britain powered up. We can continue to increase the proportion of the nation’s electricity which we provide as we move away from fossil fuels to clean sources of power."
Regarding the record figures, RenewableUK told PE: “It is an important step and it means that wind is becoming one of the major power producers. We expect that by 2020 wind power will provide 20% of the UK’s electricity.
“We expect construction activity to be high in 2016, which means generation will also increase. Tidal lagoon power could become a reality if a contract is agreed this year and would mean an entirely new renewables industry starting in 2017.”