In the first six months of the year, wind turbines in Scotland generated nearly 10 million megawatt-hours of electricity which is almost twice the entire country’s domestic power requirements. In other words, enough energy was created by the country’s renewables to power two Scotlands!
Robin Parker, climate and energy policy manager at the World Wildlife Fund (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.
Weather Energy figures show that between January and June wind turbines provided enough electricity to power the equivalent of 4.47million homes, which is nearly twice the number of homes in Scotland. March was the record-breaker month with nearly 2.2 million megawatt-hours produced but May was the low-water mark of the period with nearly half that.
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.
Last year Scottish Power became the first major UK energy firm to completely drop fossil fuels in favor of wind power. Over the next four years, the company plans to invest £5.2 billion to more than double its renewable capacity. These are all steps to fulfill the United Kingdom’s pledged to be carbon neutral in 30 years.
It’s a wonderful thing that renewable energy continues to provide a constant source of good news in the midst of increasing temperatures, extreme natural disasters, and melting polar caps. We have to be grateful that more and more countries are investing in wind, solar, and hydroelectric power whose increased capacity coupled with more efficient technology has made them more powerful than ever before.
However, it may be difficult for other countries to do as well as Scotland because wind power, like solar power, depends on the right environment to optimize its efficiency. Scotland is lucky to have blustering winds, long jagged coastlines, and steep hills that create wind channels making it a wind power paradise. Wind farms need the right environment to maximize their output and Scotland has the advantage of strong wind patterns, ample coastlines and other natural traits that make it a haven for wind power.
Furthermore, since the country has a small population, it produces excess energy that needs to be exported. This only proves further that renewables are scaling up to levels where a future without fossil fuels is completely achievable. The Scottish government wants to supply all of the country’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, which is a target it is likely to meet and probably exceed.
