Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm, in waters off the coast of Wales. The UK is home to a mature offshore wind sector.
Ben Birchall | PA Images | Getty Images
Wind power to overtake natural gas as the biggest source of electricity for the UK in the first quarter of 2023, highlighting the increasingly important role of renewable energy in the coming years.
According to researchers at Imperial College London, wind turbines provided 32.4% of Britain’s electricity in the first three months of the year. Gas, a fossil fuel, accounted for 31.7% of the electricity fuel mix.
The results were made public ahead of the publication of Drax Electric Insights, an independent report put together by a team at Imperial.
in a statement on Wednesday Draxan energy firm, Said It was the first time that wind “provided the largest share of electricity in any quarter in the history of the nation’s electricity grid.”
Other sources in the mix include:
- Import (12.6%)
- Nuclear (12.5%)
- biomass (5.7%)
- Solar (2.3%)
- hydro (1.5%)
- Coal (1.3%)
In its statement, Drax said wind-based generation was up 3% compared to the first quarter of 2022. In contrast, gas declined by 5%.
According to the analysis, the wind turbines produced 24 terawatt hours of electricity. Wednesday’s announcement said it would be enough to charge more than 300 million Tesla Model Y.S.
“The renewable energy revolution has transformed the way the UK gets its electricity, making our power grid cleaner and greener,” said Ian Staffel, Imperial College London, lead author of the Drex Electric Insights series.
“There are still many obstacles to reaching a completely fossil fuel-free grid, but turning off the gas supply for the first time is a real milestone event,” he said.
The UK is home to a mature offshore wind sector, which is set to expand in the coming years with authorities Target up to 50 GW of capacity by 2030.
Major offshore wind farms include Hornsee 2, a 165-turbine facility described by Danish energy firm Oersted as “the world’s largest offshore wind farm”.
Hornsey 2, which is now fully functionalThe UK has a capacity of over 1.3 gigawatts, but other projects off the UK coast are set to be even larger.
Located in the waters off northeast England in the North Sea, Dogar Bank Wind Farm Once fully operational, it will have a total capacity of 3.6 GW.
The project, which is being developed over three phases, says the people behind it will be able to power up to 6 million UK homes. The fourth stage of the wind farm is known as Dogar Bank Dhas also been proposed.
