The 12th of December was a cold day in the UK. Power demand was up, about 20% more than normal. How much contribution to the total load did renewable wind power provide—–0.6%. That amounts to about 3% of the wind renewable’s rated capacity. The fact that these wind farms failed to come through when the weather was cold is nothing out of the ordinary. It happens all over the world. The wind farms also fail to provide power in the hotest weather. This is owing to the fact that during very cold and very hot weather, the wind is very likely not blowing. Read this posting from the Institute for Energy Research to see performance during weather extremes.
And this from a previous posting on Climate Change Sanity
The Brits are mandated to have, by 2020, 30% of their electrical energy provided by renewables. For the year 2011, renewables provided 9.7% of the total. Wind’s contribution to that was 4.4% and solar’s 0.1%. To read the full posting “Just Enough To Boil The Kettle” the blog that provided most of this information, click here.
I wish them the best, which means, that they elect politicians that recognize that the current course is unsustainable.
cbdakota
Climate Change Sanity 