Blustery Weather Propels Wind Power to New Record

Wind power reached new heights on Friday, 18 December, with onshore and offshore turbines contributing more than 17.3GW of electricity to the grid, National Grid ESO has revealed.

The new record, achieved during a half-hour period early Friday afternoon, narrowly passed the previous record of 17.1GW, recorded nearly a year ago on 2 January 2020.

At the time the new record was set, wind power was producing 43% of the UK’s electricity. With smaller contributions from solar and hydropower, the total share of zero-carbon electricity was nearly three-quarters (74%).

Strong winds kept wind power generation high through Saturday, sidelining coal and gas plants. Fossil fuels contributed less than a fifth of our power those days.

Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive of RenewableUK, welcomed the new wind power record as “an early Christmas present we can all celebrate.”

“It’s great to see our onshore and offshore windfarms have smashed another record, generating more power on a cold December day than ever before, just when we need it most,” she said.

The latest record caps a year of milestones for the UK’s decarbonising grid, with renewable power soaring amid favourable weather, clean air and a 20% drop in energy consumption due to the pandemic.

The UK’s solar panel arrays notched their highest generation yet—9.6GW—on a sunny day in April. Air cleared of pollution due to the lockdown boosted solar power throughout the spring, contributing to a historic 67-day, 22-hour and 55-minute run without coal power, the longest since the Industrial Revolution.

Wind power also had a banner day in August, meeting historic 60% of UK electricity demand in the early hours of 26 August, with onshore and offshore turbines propelled by the high winds of Storm Francis.

And an abundance of clean electricity took the carbon intensity of the grid to an all-time monthly low of 143g of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hours.

Onn said to expect 2020’s records to quickly fall, as the government boosts renewables and capacity booms.

“We expect to see many more records set in the years ahead, as the government has made wind energy one of the most important pillars of its energy strategy for reaching net zero emissions as fast and as cheaply as possible,” Onn said.

The government recently pledged to quadruple the UK’s offshore wind capacity to 40GW by 2030—enough to power every home. 

RenewableUK has forecast that onshore wind capacity could hit 30GW by that date, from 14GW, as costs drop and onshore installations are allowed to compete for government subsidies next year for the first time in four years.

The government is also consulting on plans to install 120GW of solar power, to quadruple the UK’s total renewable capacity and help the country meet its statutory net-zero target by 2050.