Is The Wind Blowing Us Towards A Greener Grid?

Little over a week into the new year, and wind power has again set a new record for the amount of electricity generated during a half-hour period, generating a whopping 50.4% of the UK's power between 18:00-18:30 on Tuesday 10 January. That equates to approximately 21.6 gigawatts (GW) of electricity. 

This breaks the record set only a few weeks ago, when on the 30 December National Grid ESO reported that 20.9GW of electricity was produced by the UKs fleet of wind turbines. 

2022 was a bumper year for wind, with the record for amount of electricity produced being broken three times over the duration of the year. In May 2022, several generators in West Scotland were asked to turn off as the network was, at the time, unable to store the levels of electricity being produced. This set a then record of 19.9GW.

So, where does that leave wind turbines and wind energy going forward into 2023, and what impact will it have on new projects coming forward and the UK's ability deal with potentially large amounts of power? 

According to trade body RenewableUK, with wind setting record after record, this can only be a good thing for UK billpayers and businesses. During a period between 27 December and 9 January, the trade body said wind contributed to low carbon sources providing over 80% of the UK's power, cutting the reliance on gas and saving the £2.1bn in the process. Further periods like this will come as music to the ears of billpayers. 

While this all sounds positive, there is still a great need for the UK's energy network to “go green” and deploy further renewable generating sources to bolster the grid and reduce the need for gas and coal to balance the periods of low green generation. National Grid ESO has set itself targets of running a zero-carbon grid by 2025, which will always come as a challenge due to the intermittency.

Part of this will come through the deployment of further wind farms, amongst other renewable sources, with the potential for the Government, or future Governments, to relax the planning restrictions on Onshore Wind in England being a big leap forward in meeting these targets. Developers are currently trying to pre-empt this, and there has been a marked upturn in developers starting to speak with landowners about new turbines sites in England. 

However, with intermittent generation coming online, the upgrades to the network to manage more storage options is absolutely necessary. This will allow for the storage of power generated on extreme windy days such as we had in May 2022, and potentially start to become an exporter of electricity over the next 10 years while giving the security the grid needs. Long term, this will decrease the UK's reliance on coal and gas, and move us towards a greener grid, less dependence on imports and ultimately reduce energy bills for UK homeowners and business. 

If you are interested in finding out how you can support the UK with the drive towards a greener grid network, please contact Helen Moffat.

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