Scottish wind turbines created so much electricity in 2019 that they could almost power TWO Scotlands
- A record-breaking 9.8 million MWh of energy was generated from January–June
- Scotland is aiming to switch entirely to renewable power within the next year
- The month of march saw the highest output with over 2 million MWh of power
- In May, the whole UK succeeded in doing without coal power for an entire week
Scotland’s wind farms have generated so much electricity so far this year that it almost could have managed to power all its homes twice over.
Turbines across the country generated a record-breaking 9.8 million megawatt hours of energy from January–June 2019.
The highest output came in March, which saw the country’s turbines produce a total of 2,194,981 megawatt hours worth of power.
In total, the power generated over this six-month period was enough to power around 4.47 million homes — far in excess of Scotland’s 2.6 million residences.
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Scotland’s wind farms have generated so much electricity so far this year that it almost could have managed to power all its homes twice over. Pictured, Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, is the UK’s largest onshore wind farm
HOW DO WIND TURBINES WORK?
Wind turbines operate on a simple principle — the wind turns propeller-like blades around a rotor.
The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to create electricity.
They work in the opposite way to a fan, instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make electricity.
There are two main types of wind turbine, with offshore ones typically being larger and generating more energy.
These provide bulk power to the National Grid.
Scotland — which is on track to switch its electricity supply entirely over to renewable sources with the next year — has both onshore and offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of around 8,423 MW.
‘These are amazing figures. Scotland’s wind energy revolution is clearly continuing to power ahead,’ Robin Parker, Climate & Energy Policy Manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature, told ScienceAlert.
‘Up and down the country, we are all benefiting 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,’ he 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,’ Severn Wye Energy Agency weather energy project manager Alex Wilcox Brooke told ScienceAlert.
The recent performance of Scotland’s wind energy infrastructure likely comes as welcome news to the UK government, which has set the target of shutting down all coal-fired power stations by the year 2025.
In fact, the UK succeeded in doing entirely without coal power for an entire week in May, the National Grid Electricity System Operator reported — the longest such achievement since the 1880s.
During this period, all of the UK’s power was derived instead from gas turbines, nuclear energy, solar power and other renewables.
Turbines across the country generated a record-breaking 9.8 million megawatt hours of energy from January–June 2019. The highest output came in March, which saw the country’s turbines produce a total of 2,194,981 megawatt hours worth of power
Elsewhere in the world, the uptake of renewables and improvements in power generation technologies have also seen beneficial results.
In Germany, for example, enthusiastic investment in wind and solar polar has recently seen renewable energy production outstrip demand
Meanwhile, northwest China’s Qinghai Province has — despite needing to support its around 5 million citizens — succeeding in running its power grid for weeks at a time on renewable sources alone.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST WIND FARMS IN THE WORLD?
Wind farms are measured by the amount of megawatts a farm is capable of producing.
A single megawatt (MW) of wind power can run around 1,000 homes for a year.
The five largest offshore wind farms in the world are currently:
The five largest onshore wind farms are currently:
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