Electricity output from UK wind farms falls by a fifth due to unusually low
wind speeds
By Emily Gosden, Energy Editor
Power produced by wind farms slumped by a fifth in the second quarter of
this year, despite hundreds of new turbines being built – because it wasn’t
very windy.
Official Government statistics published on Thursday show that in the three
months to the end of June, the amount of electricity produced by offshore
wind farms fell by 22 per cent, to 2 terawatt-hours (TWh), compared with
the same period the year before.
Yet the number of offshore wind turbines operating grew significantly –
with 4.1 gigawatts (GW) of capacity installed in the seas around the UK by
June this year, up from 3.5GW by June 2013.
Power output from onshore wind farms also fell, by 17 per cent to 3.22 TWh.
The fall came despite dozens of new wind farms being built, increasing
onshore wind capacity by 14 per cent over the same period.
There was 8GW of onshore capacity at the end of June, 1GW more than a year
before.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said that the impact of
increased capacity was “out-weighed by that of very low wind speeds”.
“Average wind speeds were 1.6 knots lower than a year earlier, and the
lowest for quarter two for four years. Average wind speeds in June were the
lowest for any month in the last 14 years,” it said.
About 900 turbines were constructed on and offshore over the course of
2013, according to Renewable UK.
Dr John Constable, director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, which
publishes data on the sector and is critical of subsidy costs, said: “The
latest DECC data is further confirmation that wind power output is highly
variable over all timescales, minutes, hours, months, and even from year to
year.
“These variabilities are physically manageable but they have highly
significant negative economic impacts on the rest of the power generation
fleet, whose market is made very uncertain, and these uncertainties
ultimately mean much higher costs for consumers.”
While wind power output fell, the amount of electricity generated from
solar farms soared by 67 per cent, to 1.2TWh.
The rise was in line with a near-identical increase in the amount of solar
capacity installed.
Ministers have admitted that solar farms have been installed far more
rapidly than they had expected, thanks to costs falling and developers
taking advantage of generous subsidies.
In May they announced they were closing a subsidy scheme two years earlier
than planned to stop the spread of the farms, which critics say are
blighting the countryside.
Ministers originally anticipated between 2.4-4GW of large-scale solar being
installed by 2020. Yet the latest DECC statistics show that the upper end
of that range has now been exceeded, with 4.1GW installed by the end of June.
A spokesman for the wind industry trade association RenewableUK said:
“Although it’s no secret that there are some periods that are even windier
than others, the wider statistics show that wind energy is generating
increasing amounts of clean electricity for British homes and businesses
year on year.
“When you look at the last twelve months as a whole, generation from
renewable sources in the UK went up to just over 17 per cent – up from 13
per cent in the previous 12 months. The lion’s share of that came from
onshore and offshore wind – just over 50 per cent of it.
“In August, wind energy outstripped coal and nuclear for several days, and
hit at all time 24-hour record high of 22 per cent of the UK’s electricity
needs.
“National Grid has no problem taking clean power generated by wind whenever
it’s available as often as it can, and it can predict exactly where the
power will come from in advance with pinpoint accuracy. Every unit of
electricity we generate from wind offsets a unit from polluting fossil
fuels, so anyone who cares about climate change knows that we need to make
the most of it whenever we can.”
One green power company, Infinis Energy, reported last month that its
onshore wind farms had exported a third less power in the three months to
June, compared to the same period the year before, blaming “low wind speeds
experienced across the UK throughout the period”.
However, it said it would be “well placed to benefit from recovering wind
speeds when they occur”.
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