Britain blown away by new wind energy record

Onshore and offshore wind farms hit a new high of 14.9GW between 6pm and 6.30pm last Wednesday

The strong winds in the UK helped set a new renewable energy generation record last week.

According to official figures from National Grid, onshore and offshore wind farms hit a new high of 14.9GW between 6pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday.

The previous record was set on 9th November, when wind turbines generated 14.5GW of electricity.

Overall, wind farms produced 32.2% of Britain’s power needs last week, more than gas which stood at 23.5%.

Nuclear power stations supplied 17.9%, coal 8.7%, biomass 8%, imports stood at 7.8% while hydro provided 1.7% of electricity.

The news was welcomed by trade association RenewableUK.

Executive Director Emma Pinchbeck said: “It’s great to see British wind power setting new records at one of the coldest, darkest, wettest times of the year, providing clean energy for people as they came home, switched everything on, turned up the power and cooked dinner.

“As well as tackling climate change, wind is good for everyone who has to pay an electricity bill as cost of new offshore wind has fallen spectacularly so it’s now cheaper than new gas and nuclear projects and onshore wind is the cheapest power source of all.”

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