adam2 wrote: ↑22 Dec 2021, 14:59
Peak wind ! too many wind turbines have used up the wind.
Seriously, a local political figure has argued against PV modules on the grounds that they use up the sunlight and thereby render the area less attractive to holidaymakers.
The antis warmers are getting desperate!! They do have a point about wind turbines though although we have quite a way to go on turbine numbers before we affect climate badly. We just have to realise that we can't keep exploiting the earth's resources as there are Limits to Growth so we should be economical with our use of those resources.
If such figures are available I would bet that Feb 2022 will be one of the highest contributions to the winds share of monthly electrical generation ever as seems like it has been consistently windy for a whole month.
According to mygridgb wind has produced 28.6% of uk electricity in the last 28 days, just behind NG a t 30.4%. Overnight NG fell below 3GW, and was in danger of being exceeded by coal production, something I doubt has happened for many years. With the current wind forecast, I think wind will overtake NG on a 28 day basis.
According to mygriddb, wind had its best month by a country mile in February at 7.6 twh, just behind gas at 7.8 and well above previous best of 5.5, in the shortest month of the year.
Hopefully this performance will encourage the building of more wind turbines.
We can not produce ALL of our electricity from wind power, due to the cost of storage and limited storage capacity.
We could however produce MORE of our electricity from wind, and the present high gas price underlines the need for so doing.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Indicated wind power has this afternoon reached 15.6 GW, not only a new record but significantly in excess of the previous record of 14.8 GW. Wind together with smaller contributions from solar and hydro has been about 55% of UK demand for some hours.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Another new record, 16 GW a significant advance on the previous record of 15.6 GW.
Good for the environment, good for energy security, and good for the finances.
Figures as shown on gridwatch, other sources may vary.
Edited to add that later the same day, that indicated wind power reached 16.3 GW.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Wind is currently providing ~20GW or or 62% of current power demand.
Fossil fuels are a total of 11%.
We are also exporting ~1GW to Ireland and importing ~1.1 from France.
Nuclear is at 4.2GW or 13%.
Impressive and hopefully this sort of production will become a regular feature. I generally prefer the grid watch site, that gave a somewhat lower but still most imppresive figure of about 16 GW Either a new record or very close.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
