Wind power storms to a new record

THIS WEEKEND’S windy weather set a new renewable power record – and saw some households paid to charge their electric cars to help balance the grid.

Wind farms generated more than 16 gigawatts of power – five times the output expected from the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant – in Britain for the first time on Sunday evening, figures from National Grid revealed.

Over the day as a whole, wind supplied 43.7 per cent of British electricity as Storm Atiyah blew in, while nuclear generated 20.5 per cent, gas supplied 12.8 per cent and biomass 7.9 per cent.

The British grid also got 7.4 per cent of its power from imports, 3.1 per cent from coal and smaller amounts from hydro, solar, storage and other sources.

Industry body RenewableUK’s Luke Clark said: “This new British clean energy record is a great early Christmas present, and shows just how important wind is in an energy system that’s changing rapidly.”

He said wind was providing 40 per cent of our power, far more than any other source of electricity, on Sunday evening.