UK official figures show outstanding October for wind energy
Image courtesy of CIA

By RenewableUK

New figures from the National Grid for October show that wind power smashed more energy generation records, contributing even more to the UK’s clean electricity mix.

Wind energy hit a record high providing a 24% daily share of the UK’s electricity needs on the 20th October, beating the previous record of 22% set in August. Wind energy’s share of the monthly electricity mix was also 12.3%, which easily beat last October’s share of 8%, and comes very close to the December record of 13%.

The new peak ‘half-hour’ record was also repeatedly broken. At the start of October the record high was 7,920 megawatts. This was broken over a number of days and now stands at an astonishing high of 8,100MW, enough to power 17 million homes at the time of generation.

In addition, the official statistics show that wind power generated more than nuclear for 11 full days over October, with the longest period being between the 17th – 24th.

RenewableUK’s Director of External Affairs, Jennifer Webber, said: “These figures shine a light on the full extent of wind’s powerful performance over October; to beat nuclear for seven days straight, and 11 days overall in a month, is unprecedented. We saw August set new records for generation and October has followed hot on its heels”.

Notes

1. National Grid statistics provided by independent data analysts EnAppSys http://www.enappsys.com. This includes National Grid estimates for embedded wind (turbines feeding into local networks).

2. In October, wind generated an average of 4208MW (12.3%) compared with 10982MW for coal (32.2%), 5152MW for nuclear (15.1%), 10355MW for CCGT (30.4%).

3. Wind beat nuclear on the following full days: 18th-23rd, 25th-28th and the 31st October. The longest period was between 6pm on the 17th to 3am on the 24th.

4. The record for wind energy’s monthly share of the fuel mix is 13%, set in December 2013.

This article is an EV News Report repost, credit: RenewableUK.

• Share on Facebook.
• Share on Twitter.
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn
• Pin It!