Scotland Produced Enough Wind Energy To Power Every Home In October

[RiverLover]

"According to new numbers published by WWF Scotland this week, wind turbines generated enough electricity in October to power 3,045,000 homes in the U.K. — more than enough for all the homes in Scotland.

Referring to it as a “bumper month” for renewable energy, WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks said in a statement that “while nuclear power plants were being forced to shut because of cracks, Scotland’s wind and sunshine were quietly and cleanly helping to keep the lights on in homes across the country.”

Based on figures provided by WeatherEnergy, part of the European EnergizAIR project, the data also showed that for those homes fitted with solar panels, there was enough sunshine to meet around 40 percent of the electricity needs of an average home.

Wind energy has been thriving in the U.K. in recent months. In August the U.K set a new record for wind power generation, with wind accounting for seventeen percent of national demand."

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/05/3589525/bumper-month-for-wind-in-scotland/


Go Scotties!!!!!!

[newfie11]

1. That's awesome

Here in America we are a long way from that thanks to the coal, oil, and gas lobby.
It is sad to say money means more to people than the earth.

[RiverLover]

2. Very sad. And insane, since we kind of need the earth to exist.

USA! USA! USA!

[newfie11]

3. I totally agree nt

[MisterP]

13. "we'll just find or even create a new one!"

heck, I can't even watch "Interstellar" without that bothering me in the back of my head

it's all so 30s

[stillwaiting]

7. It' also sad that money means more to people than other peoples' lives.

Potentially even their loved ones or their own...

[newfie11]

10. Apparently Money means more than anything

I've wondered about this. The people pushing oil, coal, gas etc either have convinced themselves it's harmless( any idiot knows the truth) or their psychotic.
I think it's the last one.
Look at the Kochs, they could never spend all that money even if they stopped everything now.
What a help it would be to this earth if the rich would spend money on saving it instead.
Greed sucks!

[Martin Eden]

4. Fracking was just approved in Illinois

And how much you wanna bet the Keystone X pipeline gets pushed through now?

[RoccoR5955]

5. I wonder...

How the Netherlands is doing on this front. I just got back from there last week, and even though it is a small country, there are many, many windmills there. Windmills seem to be part of their culture, and they embrace them, rather than shun them, as do many here.

[DeSwiss]

6. K&R

- ''When there's a huge solar energy spill, it's just called a nice day.''

[Denzil_DC]

8. I always find it fascinating looking at this readout of what's happening on the UK electricity grid

Last edited Fri Nov 7, 2014, 05:04 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

It shows everything practically in real time, including the European interconnectors that shunt power back and forth as supply and demand fluctuate. Hover over the dials for detailed explanations. It particularly shows the over-reliance on coal and gas, especially with so many nukes out of service at present. I don't know whether the US system is integrated enough to have a similar site available.

It has to be said that October was a pretty shitty month with periods of very high winds. Problems arise when we have large high pressure systems stalled over the UK in cold weather, meaning there's little if any wind and the windfarms lie idle. Onshore wind needs to be a stopgap while offshore and tidal/wave power systems are developed and deployed (some significant developments already under way there), which will help to fulfill the baseload needs and overcome the still-air/cold-weather deficit. We also need to use less electricity, of course ...

[nationalize the fed]

12. very cool page, thx

according to that page the UK is currently getting almost as much energy from wind as from nuclear

nuclear: 5.53 GW

wind: 3.74 GW

The hover text says there's another 50% from unmetered farms so it's probably actually more.

The US needs a page like that! Wow it just autorefreshed! Very nice. Excellent.

UK: Superior Energy Information and Superior TV. With the likes of Mich Turner MBE and Peter Sidwell soon even the food will be superior. (Love Britain's Best Bakery)

[FBaggins]

9. That's one of the benefits of being part of the UK

They never would have been able to accomplish that on their own and it would have been a huge liability if they had decided to leave the UK.

[Denzil_DC]

14. I think that's highly arguable

(and that's without being an independence hardliner).

Scotland contributes disproportionately to the UK's overall energy supply in terms of hydro and pumped hydro storage, aside from other sources, and that applies to wind as well:

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published statistics showing all Scotland’s onshore wind farms had a maximum capacity of 3,808 megawatts (MW) at the end of 2012.

This total was 34 per cent higher than the 2,837MW total in the last quarter of 2011. Scotland’s total capacity is now nearly double that of England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

Back in 2013, the BBC reported:

Scotland continues to produce more energy than it uses, with more than 26% of electricity generated here last year being exported, figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed.

Nuclear power provided 34.4% of electricity generated in Scotland in 2012, while 29.8% came from renewables, 24.9% came from coal, 8% from gas and 2.8% from oil and other sources.

The proportion of power in Scotland generated from renewable sources was significantly higher than the rest of the UK.

The Scottish government has committed (whether it can deliver is another matter) to getting 100% of Scotland's energy supply from renewable energy by 2020. In contrast, the UK government has committed to meeting just 15% of the UK's needs from renewables by 2020, apparently being more inclined to kneejerk in the direction of fracking, which isn't panning out so well at the moment.

Given the richness of resources the British Isles has access to, being an archipelago with massive potential for wind, wave, and tidal power (Scotland alone is estimated to be blessed with 25% of Europe's potential tidal power and 10% of its potential wave power), in addition to as yet more immature renewable energy resources like geothermal, biofuels, and waste-to-energy that need more investment, it seems like a no-brainer.

If the UK as whole had jumped on that bandwagon 30 years ago when Salter first developed his Duck, rather than pouring money into nuclear (which has proven a poor investment eve in terms of baseload) and relatively short-term stopgaps like gas, the economy would have benefited enormously, not to mention the environment. It's not too late to change course, but time's running out.

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. More here…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112777317