Whilst the heavy rain and battering winds may have signalled the end of the British summer, it wasn’t all bad news. On Sunday 10 August 2014 the UK’s wind industry set a new hourly output record, delivering an average of 5GW of power over the hour and meeting an impressive 17 per cent of national demand. This increase in renewable energy generation saw wind outperform coal power which provided just 3.2GW. In addition the performance of biomass and hydropower saw a total of 21.5 per cent of power on the grid being provided by renewables.
Fine Energy work on projects which install small and medium scale turbines. The output from these projects will be added to the metered wind farm recordings, meaning the total output from wind turbines could be as much as 20 per cent higher! This performance has shown critics that the National Grid CAN manage high levels of variable renewable energy supplies. Moreover, the shutdown of four EDF nuclear reactors highlights the importance of a clean and balanced energy supply.
It appears that even through the summer months, wind power continues to offer a valuable contribution to the UK’s energy needs and the wind energy capacity looks set to increase with many new onshore and offshore wind farms in planning.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2359823/uk-wind-power-sets-new-summer-record