Storm Diana brought travel chaos to road, rail and airports, but the clouds did have a silver lining: the strong winds helped set a renewable energy record. Windfarms supplied about a third of the UK’s electricity between 6pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday, a time of peak energy demand. Output hit a high of 14.9GW, beating a previous record of 14.5GW. The milestone coincides with the official opening on Friday of E.ON’s Rampion windfarm off the coast near Brighton, which is the first in the Channel and can power about 350,000 homes. Blustery weather has buoyed wind output in the past few days, with National Grid reporting thousands of wind turbines were the UK’s No 1 source of power across Wednesday and Thursday, at about 32% of generation. Gas power stations are usually top. See the full visual Wind power in the UK reached record highs this weekPercentage of electricity generation on 28 November 2018WindGasNuclearCoalBiomassImportsHydro50%32.223.517.98.787.81.7%Guardian Graphic | Source: RenewableUK/National Grid Windfarms have moved from a niche source of electricity generation a decade ago – when they supplied less than 2% – to a cornerstone of Britain’s power mix, at nearly 15% of supply last year. The 400MW Rampion project is […]
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