Britain Sets New Record, Generating Enough Wind Power for 22 Million Homes (thetimes.com)
- Reference: 0180176929
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/22/1057202/britain-sets-new-record-generating-enough-wind-power-for-22-million-homes
- Source link: https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/wind-farms-generate-record-power-9ckjw72rv
> A new wind record has been set for Britain, with enough electricity generated from turbines to power 22 million homes, the system operator has said.
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> The mark of 22,711 megawatts (MW) was set at 7.30pm on 11 November... enough to keep around three-quarters of British homes powered, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said. The country had experienced windy conditions, particularly in the north of England and Scotland...
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> Neso has predicted that Britain could hit another milestone in the months ahead by running the electricity grid for a period entirely with zero carbon power, renewables and nuclear... Neso said wind power is now the largest source of electricity generation for the UK, and the government wants to generate almost all of the UK's electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030.
"Wind accounted for 55.7 per cent of Britain's electricity mix at the time..." [2]reports The Times :
> Gas provided only 12.5 per cent of the mix, with 11.3 per cent coming from imports over subsea power cables, 8 per cent from nuclear reactors, 8 per cent from biomass plants, 1.4 per cent from hydroelectric plants and 1.1 per cent from storage.
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> Britain has about 32 gigawatts of wind farms installed, approximately half of that onshore and half offshore, according to the Wind Energy Database from the wind industry body Renewable UK. That includes five of the world's biggest offshore wind farms. The government is seeking to double onshore wind and quadruple offshore wind power by 2030 as part of its plan for clean energy....
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> Jane Cooper, deputy chief executive of Renewable UK, said: "On a cold, dark November evening, wind was generating enough electricity to power 80 per cent of British homes when we needed it most.
[1] https://news.sky.com/story/new-record-for-wind-powered-electricity-in-britain-13472884
[2] https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/wind-farms-generate-record-power-9ckjw72rv
undeniable (Score:2)
Renewables are undeniably a good idea. The energy is just right there.
Sure they are not without problems, and in a country the size of the UK, there's not enough to be energy independent, but even with that we should build more.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
> Renewables are undeniably a good idea. The energy is just right there.
> Sure they are not without problems, and in a country the size of the UK, there's not enough to be energy independent, but even with that we should build more.
Denying it: Trump - [1]Trump blames renewable energy for rising electricity prices. Experts point elsewhere [apnews.com] (and other sources):
> Trump called wind and solar power “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve wind or “farmer destroying Solar” projects. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social site.
So short-sighted... (sigh)
[1] https://apnews.com/article/trump-electricity-prices-wind-solar-7c089e33bf237a218f7ea9fe54ecb019
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> âoeThe days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!â he wrote on his Truth Social site.
That would be a fitting epitaph for him. Wishful thinking, but nevertheless.
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The UK has at least 20x as much wind power available than its current electricity consumption. Energy independence is entirely possible, if not particularly desirable.
The UK could be a massive exporter of clean energy. Scotland in particular could be getting rich off it, but like with the oil they aren't seeing as much of the benefit as they should be seeing.
Well on this cold November evening... (Score:1)
...wind is only providing 8gw, ccgt is providing 13. Nature is fickle. The sort of people who think base load generation wont be required in the future are deluded.
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The sort of people who think base load generation wont be required in the future are deluded.
No one has said that. But thanks for playing.
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Actually the former head of the National Grid said that. The guy running the UK's grid said that the concept of base load was obsolete, and he was right.
Re: Well on this cold November evening... (Score:1)
I'd love to know how he plans to power the country during a windless anticyclonic night then. Batteries? Hydro? Dont make me laugh.
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There has never been a point in recorded history when the British Isles and territorial waters were windless.
And yes, we have hydro, we have storage, and we could have a hell of a lot more.
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Given most people think "dams, reservoirs, and turbines" when they hear the word "hydro", it's also worth pointing out that the UK has a lot of untapped tidal potential as well; the Severn estruary in particular is one of the largest tidal bores in the world, twice a day, and its energy potential will only increase as sealevels rise. Combine that with some suitable storage system, and you'll have another clean (once set up) and predictable supply capacity to offset some more of the current carbon-based base
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Indeed, and the environmentalists are on board with it because although it will disrupt the local wildlife, it will create new habitats, and in the end the reduction in damage from not using fossil fuels to generate that energy far outweighs the downsides.
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> I'd love to know how he plans to power the country during a windless anticyclonic night then.
No such thing has ever been recorded in the UK. Most of our wind power is generated in the world's largest offshore windfarms sat in the North Sea.
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> The sort of people who think base load generation wont be required in the future are deluded
Base-load generation can be provided by storing power. For hours-long scales we can do that with batteries, heat storage, and things like flywheels. The technology isn't feasible everywhere and it's not without its down-sides, but it is worth considering when you are looking at how to build a power grid.
The problem of longer-term energy storage needs more research.
These articles are cool and all but (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do we get submissions bragging about renewable capacity expansion and/or generation milestones? Where are the submissions boasting of everyday Britons saving money from their power bills being lowered by these installations? For the average consumer (and the economy of a nation), cost is the biggest factor.
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It will newsworthy if or when the UK wholesale market changes rules to break the link between gas price and electricity price. Until then we can be impressed with our world leading wind generation.
[1]https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/o... [ecotricity.co.uk]
> What is the ‘link’?
> We have a bizarre system for setting the price of electricity in this country. It’s tied directly to the price of the most expensive source on the grid, which is almost always dirty fossil gas.
> What this means is that even cheap green electricity (generated by the wind and the sun at a fraction of the cost of gas) has to be sold at the price of electricity generated by fossil gas.
[1] https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-news/2025/breaking-the-link
i don't get it (Score:3)
if they can generate most of their electricity by wind, why is their electricity so expensive? you would think with so many energy sources, competition would be fierce and they would get cheaper energy
Re: i don't get it (Score:1)
Because the cost of all the green energy programmes is so high that we'll be paying for it in our bills for decades to come, with no visible impact on our rates.
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Wrong. The prices for all electricity are tied to the most expensive source in the mix, which is almost always gas.
Re: i don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
The price of electricity is pegged to the price of gas, the sooner they break that link the better
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> if they can generate most of their electricity by wind, why is their electricity so expensive? you would think with so many energy sources, competition would be fierce and they would get cheaper energy
Our wholesale energy market uses the marginal pricing model. That means that any moment in time the wholesale price is based on the most expensive form of generation needed to meet demand, gas. So even if just 1% of demand is being met by gas and 99% by renewables it will all be priced at the same as gas. Successive governments have said we need to change that but they're too addicted to the tax revenues to do so.
However (Score:2)
The Brits continue paying electricity prices on par with the price of gold. Because greedy bastards running electricity companies and the cost of all the green incentives have fucked us over.
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The Brits continue paying electricity prices on par with the price of gold
What are you comparing? The average annual household electricity bill to the average annual household expenditure on gold? Yeah, the electicity bill is probably higher, but only because the gold expenditure is quite low even if you include the few cents worth in that new tv/computer/phone/gizmo the household just bought.
If you are comparing "monthy average household power bill to the price of X amount of gold" then what is "X"?
Re: However (Score:2)
Looks like that metaphor was completely lost on you. Take a deep breath, walk away from the calculator, don't follow the light of a white Excel spreadsheet...
Doesn't really matter (Score:2)
The UK has HIGH electricity prices for reasons that have nothing to do with whether wind sets a record on a particular evening.
The root problem is structural.
First, the market design. The UK uses marginal pricing, meaning the price for all electricity is set by the last, most expensive generator needed to meet demand. That generator is almost always gas. Even if wind covers 40 percent, if one gas turbine is running, gas sets the price for everyone. Continental Europe often softens this with regulated nuclea
What's the environmental impact? (Score:2)
Estimated Trees Felled for UK onshore wind farms: Approximately 17 million trees have been felled since the early 2000s (over ~24 years of major development).This figure comes from a 2024 Scottish Government-commissioned review of public land projects, covering ~1 million trees cut in 2023 alone.
Context: Many turbines are sited in commercial plantations (e.g., Sitka spruce) scheduled for harvesting anyway, but felling accelerates for turbine bases, access roads, and power lines. Not all are "ancient" forest
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Have you got any actual authoratitive sources to back up your claims or just ChatGPT hallucinating bollocks? The claim of 1 million trees cut in Scotland to put up wind turbines just in 2023 alone is absolutely absurd. It would have been on the news and there been a national outcry about it.
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Even if, and assuming it is true, it is not like the land cleared is useless. After building the windmills, anybody with an imagination can think of many different beneficial ways to use the land that has a "pole" every five acres or so.
Yeah, but... (Score:2)
those are 'woke' kilowatt-hours.
For how long exactly? (Score:2)
These stories always say "Wind generated X at a specific moment in time" but never seem to put it in context.
Was it one second? One minute? Hours?
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I mean that's hydro
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Contrary to common belief, Britain has not very much rain. It just happens to rain often, but very small amounts. Rome for instance gets more rain per year than London, it just gets it in some very intense rainstorms, and is dry for other periods during the year.