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For the first time ever, Scottish wind power produced more than 100 percent of the threshold and set an impressive new milestone.
“Wind power breaking through the magic 100% threshold is truly momentous," Gina Hanrahan, head of policy at the World Wildlife Fund Scotland told Energy Voice. The record-breaking 109 percent of the total required energy occurred on November 28 according to the National Grid and the amount of energy produced was a whopping 116, 599 megawatts.
In fact, the month saw the combination of on and offshore wind turbines producing more than the required energy demand for 20 out of 30 days according to Energy Voice. That is no small feat.
Scotland is a world leader in producing electricity from renewables, 68.1 percent of its electricity came from renewables and 74 percent of that is from wind. Wind power in Scotland, thanks to its fairly awful weather, is cheap to produce and extremely reliable.
Dr. Sam Gardner, the acting director of WWF Scotland told Business Green that the recent surge in clean energy production shows how critical wind power has become to the country's electrical grid. "These figures clearly show wind is working, it's helping reduce our emissions and is the lowest cost form of new power generation. It's also popular, with a recent survey also showing more and more people support turbines in rural areas."
Last year, ScottishPower became the first major energy supplier in the UK to generate 100 percent of its power from wind in October 2018 when it closed its coal power plants and sold its gas stations according to RenewableUK. The power company has 40 operations wind farms in the UK.
In 2016, Scotland set a goal to generate 100 percent of its electricity through renewables by 2020. The major drawback to meeting this goal is that storage technology has not kept pace with the increase in the amount of energy generated but this may soon change.
RenewableUK launched a new database in November 2018 and it shows that a huge increase in battery storage capacity is set to take place. The extra power from windy days will be able to be stored and fed into the system when needed.
RenewableUK’s executive director Emma Pinchbeck said in a press release, “Setting a new wind energy generation record in December is a great Christmas gift in an exceptional year for the UK’s world-leading renewable energy industries - we’ve smashed record after record.
“In the years ahead, the electricity system will be smarter and cleaner for people. Like the Ghost of Christmas Future, 2018 has shown us portents of a new type of energy system led by renewables. In the present, we’re celebrating the fact that UK wind and marine energy are keeping the Christmas tree lights on.”
Adam Forsyth, alternative energy and resource research efficiency analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald told Energy Voice that he expects tidal energy to become part of the renewable energy mix in Scotland. The tidal energy and increased storage capacity could help make the 2020 goal attainable.
All of this great news is good holiday cheer for Scotland and the rest of the UK as it stands on becoming a world leader in renewable energy.
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