UK electricity generation

Joe Public

Joe Public

Striker
On Saturday wind produced 31.9% of GB electricity followed by nuclear 23.6%, gas 20.7%, biomass 7.9%, imports 6.6%, solar 6.2%, hydro 1.5%, storage 1.0%, other 0.4%, coal 0.0%, national demand 604 GWh *excl. non-renewable distributed generation.

That’s 71.1% from low carbon and renewable sources.

Big change from where we were 5 years ago.
 


Joe Public said:
On Saturday wind produced 31.9% of GB electricity followed by nuclear 23.6%, gas 20.7%, biomass 7.9%, imports 6.6%, solar 6.2%, hydro 1.5%, storage 1.0%, other 0.4%, coal 0.0%, national demand 604 GWh *excl. non-renewable distributed generation.

That’s 71.1% from low carbon and renewable sources.

Big change from where we were 5 years ago.
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There are a number of offshore windfarms which are steadily going online, plus a significant number in the pipeline as the UK heads towards its 2030 targets.
 
i think saturday could have produced it all by wind! Lindisfarne Festival mainstage had to close because of the wind.

I wonder if it would be possible to fit turbines onto ships propellors to generate some electricity for themselves?
 
Joe Public said:
On Saturday wind produced 31.9% of GB electricity followed by nuclear 23.6%, gas 20.7%, biomass 7.9%, imports 6.6%, solar 6.2%, hydro 1.5%, storage 1.0%, other 0.4%, coal 0.0%, national demand 604 GWh *excl. non-renewable distributed generation.

That’s 71.1% from low carbon and renewable sources.

Big change from where we were 5 years ago.
Click to expand...

Brilliant, the less we use fossil fuels the better.
 
Pity we cant guarantee to have wind and sun in December and January when usage will be higher . Need to have the right mix of Generation including Nuclear.
 
Any breakdown of nightime usage as Plenty I know who have bought electric motors are charging nightime. In the last month our nightime usage has gone up from 60 kwh to 560 kwh per month.
 
Roger said:
The daft thing is, I used to live near a load of wind turbines and they have to turn them off when it gets too windy :lol:
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The turbine and blades have upper operational limits and high winds can mean the wind speed is outside of these parameters. New designs control it better with variable pitch blades.

There’re susceptible to other issues too:
www.offshorewind.biz

Lightning Strike Caused Hornsea One Production Cut - Report | Offshore Wind

The reduction in the energy supply from the Hornsea One offshore wind farm on 9 August was caused by a lightning strike, an initial report from National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) has revealed.
www.offshorewind.biz www.offshorewind.biz

That’s part of the cause of the blackouts a few weeks ago.
 
Kevj said:
The turbine and blades have upper operational limits and high winds can mean the wind speed is outside of these parameters. New designs control it better with variable pitch blades.

There’re susceptible to other issues too:
www.offshorewind.biz

Lightning Strike Caused Hornsea One Production Cut - Report | Offshore Wind

The reduction in the energy supply from the Hornsea One offshore wind farm on 9 August was caused by a lightning strike, an initial report from National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) has revealed.
www.offshorewind.biz www.offshorewind.biz

That’s part of the cause of the blackouts a few weeks ago.
Click to expand...


sorry, should have mentioned I meant to generate electricity from the water
 
Hulkster said:
On Saturday wind might produce 30% and on Sunday it could produce 0%.

Completely unreliable and unpredictable, and therefore completely unsuitable for a developed nation to rely on.
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Not exactly. The learnings over the last ten years are that for low speed generation, you need a much bigger sweep to harvest sufficient wind.
The new turbines which are in development can produce 12.5MW and have a blade diameter of over 200m.

The next stage is to find effective ways of medium term storage.
 
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Kevj said:
The turbine and blades have upper operational limits and high winds can mean the wind speed is outside of these parameters. New designs control it better with variable pitch blades.

There’re susceptible to other issues too:
www.offshorewind.biz

Lightning Strike Caused Hornsea One Production Cut - Report | Offshore Wind

The reduction in the energy supply from the Hornsea One offshore wind farm on 9 August was caused by a lightning strike, an initial report from National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) has revealed.
www.offshorewind.biz www.offshorewind.biz

That’s part of the cause of the blackouts a few weeks ago.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it had to be very windy to be fair, but it was just odd looking out on particularly windy days and seeing all of them stationary.
 
BOYCEY said:
With us been an island, Im surprised we have not started to use tidal energy more,
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I seem to remember reading ages ago that it was quite unreliable and in terms of maintenance it was a nightmare. Not sure if still true through advances.
Its great to read stuff like this though
 

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