During the first half of 2019 Scotland’s wind turbines provided enough energy to power every home in Scotland and much of the North of England, the WWF Scotland has revealed.
The figures, provided by Weather Energy, show that between January and June wind turbines provided 9,831,320MWh, which is enough electricity to power the equivalent of 4.47million homes for those six months.
In Scotland, there are 2.46 million households and in English local authority areas north of a line between Blackpool and York there are 2.01 million.
Robin Parker, Climate and Energy Policy Manager at the WWF said: ‘These are amazing figures, Scotland’s wind energy revolution is clearly continuing to power ahead. Up and down the country, we are all benefitting from cleaner energy and so is the climate.
‘These figures show harnessing Scotland’s plentiful onshore wind potential can provide clean green electricity for millions of homes across not only Scotland, but England as well.
‘It’s about time the UK government stepped up and gave Scottish onshore wind a route to market.’
Alex Wilcox Brooke, Weather Energy Project Manager at Severn Wye Energy Agency added: ‘These figures really highlight the consistency of wind energy in Scotland and why it now plays a major part in the UK energy market.’
In June, Great Britain’s electricity network’s longest ever coal-free run finally came to an end, almost three weeks after it began.
During the period, 13% of all electricity generated was from wind power.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s recent public attitude survey highlighted that 79% of people support onshore wind.
Despite this, experts have said ‘the regulatory and policy vacuum‘ around onshore renewables means that the deployment of new projects is at its slowest for a decade.
Scotland is about 1/3rd of the area of the UK so Scotland produces about one third of the UK’s wind farm energy.
If and when renewable energy farms produce all the UK’s energy then expect Scotland to be exporting to the rest of the UK about 24%, three times more wind farm energy than Scots consume (8%), which will mean that Scotland will be keeping the lights on for about 16 million of our English neighbours.