As renewable electricity generation becomes more prominent in the UK, wind power is taking on a more significant role in the electricity sources of the country.
Green energy companies have invested in wind farms for the past two decades. In the last five years, development has received greater support from the government and large oil companies aiming to move to renewables.
The result is the pipeline of UK offshore wind farms that can easily hit 20 GW before 2030, given construction timelines, with the plan to reach a higher capacity.
Can wind turbines power the UK?
Wind turbines are already the largest source of renewable energy in the UK. The UK government has a 2030 target to expand the offshore wind capacity to 50 GW from the current 11 GW. On the other hand, offshore wind farms still have planning barriers limiting their expansion.
In 2022 there are a total of 11,094 turbines, both onshore and offshore, in the UK, which powers an equivalent of 18 million homes annually. The wind turbines generated 64 terawatt-hours in 2021, more than solar and nuclear combined for the same year.
The government’s continuous investment in more wind farms shows that wind turbines can extract more electricity from wind power. Moreover, the trend in wind farms is to build bigger turbines and bigger wind farms.
Is the UK building more wind farms?
Several wind farms will go online in the next six to seven years. These wind farms are located in the North Sea and leased by the Crown Estates.
These wind farms will not only break records left and right but will also double the UK’s offshore wind capacity by the time they are commissioned.
However, despite the number of wind farms commissioned, the target of 50 GW by 2030 is still far away. The offshore wind development pipeline will only add 9 GW based on construction timelines.
The offshore wind sector has much potential to work on, though, as the government can release 37 GW of future leasing potential. Given the timeline, The UK must give the potential leases in 2022 or 2023 to reach the 50 GW target by 2030.
The optimistic side is that large companies are investing in offshore wind farms in the UK. Companies such as SSE Renewables, Equinor, Orsted, BP, and TotalEnergies are already working with the UK government on current or future projects.
There are currently only 40 offshore wind projects in the UK. Still, each one powers entire communities, from thousands to hundreds of thousands of households.
How efficient are wind turbines in the UK?
Although only installed as a prototype in Rotterdam and tested in Blythe, the latest technological advances from GE’s Haliade-X turbines show that they can achieve a capacity factor between 60 to 64%.
Developers will soon install GE’s Haliade-X wind turbines in the Dogger Bank Wind Farm complex in the North Sea.
Generally, the government records wind farms’ efficiency data. Offshore wind farms are usually efficient, and according to energynumber.info, UK’s offshore wind farms have an average of 38.8%.
What is the UK’s largest onshore wind farm?
Based on the number of turbines, the largest onshore wind farm in the UK is the Clyde Wind Farm, with 152 turbines. Clyde also has the highest installed capacity at 522 MW. The wind farm is located in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
What is the UK’s first onshore wind farm?
The Delabole Wind Farm is the first wind farm in the UK, built in 1991. The wind farm is also the first onshore wind farm in the country. Good Energy Group PLC operates the wind farm located in Cornwall, England.
The wind farm initially operated 10 Vestas WD-34 turbines with 100 kW capacity each. In 2010, the Vestas turbines were decommissioned and replaced in 2011 with 4 Enercon E-70 turbines with a 2.3 MW capacity each.
The current capacity of the farm is enough to power 7,800 homes.
What is the UK’s first offshore wind farm?
The first offshore wind project in the UK is the North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm on Liverpool Bay, Wales. The farm has been operating for 17 years and has delivered 2.9 terawatt hours. It has averaged 168 gigawatt-hours a year since its commissioning year in 2003.
Offshore wind projects at the time were scarce, and a 60 MW wind farm had been a feat. The project used 30 2 MW Vestas turbines.
How many homes can a wind turbine power in the UK?
A large wind turbine can generate several gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. Smaller turbines can power several to dozens of households.
Based on the average* performance of wind turbines in the UK, for every 1 MW of installed capacity, an equivalent of around 1,351 households are powered.
Data from renewableuk.com.*The average is calculated by dividing the operational capacity (24.6 GW) by the number of households powered (18.2 million). The count of functional capacity does not include turbines below 100 kW.
How much UK energy comes from wind power?
In 2021, 19% of the UK’s electricity came from offshore wind and onshore wind farms.
In Scotland, wind energy contributed 23.2 terawatt-hours in 2020. Wind power is one of the main reasons Scotland produced renewable electricity, equivalent to 97% of its gross electricity consumption in 2020.
How much energy do UK offshore wind farms generate?
The large amounts of electricity produced by offshore wind are due to its having large turbines that work even in weaker winds and its larger turbine generators. It is typical for offshore wind turbines to range between 6 MW to 12 MW.
Offshore wind power is also more consistent, as the winds at sea are not interrupted by terrain or building structures.
The UK’s largest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 1, averages electricity generation of 5 terawatt-hours per year. Offshore wind turbines can also be built further out from the shore, resulting in significant and higher wind power generation.
How much energy do onshore wind farms generate?
Onshore turbines can be as small as 100 kW or even less than residential turbines.
According to renewableuk.com, there are 8,797* onshore turbines in the UK for 14 MW of installed capacity. There are currently limits to building onshore wind turbines in the UK. It remains to be seen if the incoming Prime Minister will lift the restrictions.
*does not include turbines below 100 kW