Wind delivers record 12 per cent of UK electricity demand

Across the whole of December, UK wind farms were responsible for an average 5.3 per cent of demand, more than any of the previous three months. 

The latest figures are being presented as further proof of the important contribution wind energy has to make to power generation and in cutting carbon emissions. RenewableUK said carbon emissions from the UK’s electricity generators were cut by over 750,000 tonnes – the equivalent to taking over 300,000 cars off the road – because of wind’s contribution to electricity demand on December 28. Wind’s previous record share of electricity demand was recorded in September 2011, when it passed the 10 per cent mark.

December's results come on top of energy data released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change last month that shows that nine per cent of the UK’s electricity was generated from renewables between July and September. 

As well as high winds, RenewableUK credited the strong results for wind energy in December on National Grid’s successful management of wind output during the period. 

"As we’re generating increasingly large amounts of electricity from wind, feeding those large volumes of power into the system represents an engineering challenge to the National Grid – a challenge we are pleased to see they met over Christmas," Dr Gordon Edge, RenewableUK’s director of Policy, said.

National Grid is responsible for balancing the output of the UK’s electricity generators with demand from consumers and businesses on a minute-by-minute basis. Last year, the company launched a new wind power forecasting system, to more accurately predict output from the UK’s growing fleet of wind farms.