The stormy weather brought by Storm Pia helped Britain’s wind farms set a new record for clean energy, with wind turbines generating more than half the country’s electricity.
Wind farms generated 21.8 gigawatts (GW) of electricity between 08:00 and 08:30 on Thursday, according to RenewableUK, a not-for-profit trade association for renewable energy, citing figures from National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO).
This beat the previous record of 21.6 GW set on January 10. Wind generated 56% of Britain’s electricity, although this was less than the record percentage of electricity generated from wind in a half-hour period, which was 69% on November 19 this year.
Dan McGrail, CEO of RenewableUK, said: “Setting a new wind energy record is a great achievement to celebrate this festive season. Wind power is taking center stage in our modern clean energy mix, strengthening our energy security and keeping Britain fueled at the coldest, darkest time of the year.”
Storm Pia caused disruption across the UK, with gusts of up to 80mph in northern Britain blowing trees over railway lines.
The news came as Germany’s RWE agreed to buy a large collection of North Sea wind projects from Swedish power company Vattenfall for £963m. In July, Vattenfall halted work on the 1.4GW Norfolk Boreas offshore wind project in the North Sea, citing higher costs and “challenging market conditions”.
RWE said it would buy the Norfolk zone – three fully consented wind farms comprising Norfolk Boreas, Norfolk Vanguard West and Norfolk Vanguard East.
One of the largest offshore wind developments in the world, it will eventually have a total capacity of 4.2GW, enough to power 4m homes.
Danish renewable energy company Ørsted decided on Wednesday to go ahead with plans to build the world’s largest wind farm off the coast of Norfolk.
It has made a final investment decision on the Hornsea 3 project off Britain’s coast, which will have capacity to power more than 3.3 million homes and is expected to cost 70bn-75bn Danish kroner (£8.1bn- £8.7 billion) will cost. It should be completed by the end of 2027.
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The future of the project was uncertain after that Ørsted abandoned plans to build wind farms on the US coast amid rising costs for the global wind industry from rising interest rates, steel prices and wages.
McGrail said: “In the new year, the renewable energy industry will work closely with government to ensure we maximize investment in new projects, critically through the next auction for new clean energy projects, to lower everyone’s energy bills and to get us to get to zero as fast as possible.”
He called on ministers to be “ambitious” when they set out new parameters for next summer’s auction in March, which he hopes will secure a record amount of new renewable energy capacity and boost jobs in the sector.
The last offshore wind auction in September did not attract any bids, as the price for energy offered to developers did not take into account high inflation in their costs. Industry insiders said that “disastrous” handling by the government has caused a major shortage of future renewable energy.
