Wind farms ‘could supply more energy on cold days’

Wind farms have the potential to provide more energy on the coldest days of winter than previously thought, a study suggests.

Concerns have been raised about how intermittent wind can help meet demand on cold, still winter days.

Warmer periods in winter are often windier and colder periods are calmer due to prevailing weather patterns, leading to a reduction in wind power when demand is high, researchers said.

But on the coldest days with highest demand, average wind power increases again, according to the study by scientists from the Met Office Hadley Centre, Imperial College London and the University of Reading. The study compared electricity demand over 34 years with power from an imagined uniform distribution of onshore and offshore turbines across Britain and areas where sites are planned.

It found that, on average, winter wind power supplies fall by a third between days with low demand and high demand. But during days with the highest demand, average wind power increases again, due to strengthening easterly winds.

In days with the highest 5 per cent of energy demand, a third produce more wind power than the winter average. Hazel Thornton of the Met Office Hadley Centre said: “Contrary to what is often believed, when it comes to the very coldest days, with highest electricity demand, wind energy supply starts to recover.”