Originally Posted by
bsm2
Great Britain’s windfarms set a new clean energy record on Monday after the blowy bank holiday weather helped onshore and offshore wind turbines make up almost half of the electricity system.
The blustery bank holiday produced a new wind power record as turbines generated just over 17.6GW of electricity for the first time in the middle of Monday afternoon, enough to run more than 3.5m kettles.
Windfarms generated 48.5% of the electricity grid in England, Scotland and Wales, which was more than the contribution made by gas plants, nuclear reactors and biomass burners combined. Gas plants powered 21.7% of the electricity grid yesterday afternoon, while nuclear reactors generated 12% and biomass power units contributed 6.1%.
However, the washout weather meant less clean electricity from solar farms, which made up 2.3% of the electricity mix.
Wind turbines played a slightly larger role in keeping the lights on between Christmas and New Year last year when wind power made up more than 50.6% of electricity, but generated fewer gigawatts, because overall demand for power was lower.
The new high for wind output narrowly overtook a previous record, set in February, of 17.5GW when Storm Darcey propelled wind power to 56% of Great Britain’s electricity. Before this, wind turbines reached a peak on Boxing Day, when Storm Bella helped them to generate just over half of Great Britain’s electricity.
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