New official figures from the UK National Grid for January show that wind energy broke new records for weekly, monthly and half-hourly generation, highlighting the central role wind now plays in the UK’s energy mix.
January was the most productive month ever for wind energy, providing 14% of Britain’s electricity (4.13 terawatt hours) – enough to power the equivalent of 8.7 million UK homes. The weekly record was also broken in January with 1.119 gigawatt hours generated, and the half-hourly record was exceeded on 2nd Jan when wind supplied 31% of Britain’s electricity demand.
The news came as overall UK wind capacity (onshore and offshore) topped 12 gigawatts for the first time, a milestone for the country – enough to supply nearly 7 million households annually.
RenewableUK’s Director of External Affairs, Jennifer Webber said: “The past few months have seen significantly high levels of generation for wind energy and January was no exception. It’s great to see wind making such a positive contribution to Britain’s clean energy needs at a cold time of year when we need it most, and this can only continue with greater capacity coming online – reaching 12 gigawatts is an achievement which the industry and the nation can be proud of. But if we’re to secure a supply of clean energy for the long term future, we need all the mainstream political parties to support the wind industry onshore and offshore in the General Election and beyond.”
Image: Vattenfall (Illustration)