‘Wind power triumphs: UK’s energy mix breezes past fossil fuels’ – trumpets Energy Live News. But turning to Gridwatch this morning, the current picture is totally different: wind minimal, gas nearly half of total electricity generation. As usual, reports misleadingly highlight wind *capacity*, which is merely the theoretical maximum output in ideal conditions. Of course in windier conditions the numbers can be a lot different, but the point is we’re not seeing anything like the runaway success being claimed by the wind lobby, and never will as the weather always decides how well or poorly it can perform. No amount of capacity changes that – unlike on-demand gas.
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Wind power has overtaken fossil fuels in installed capacity, says Energy Live News.
The analysis from Imperial College London, conducted for Drax Electric Insights, reveals that wind capacity reached 27.9GW in June, surpassing the 27.7GW installed capacity of gas generation.
This marks the first time in more than a century that the UK has more installed wind capacity than gas generation, according to experts.
The development has come at a time when the output from gas power stations has seen a substantial decline of 23% in Q2 2023 compared to the same period last year, according to the report.
. . .
Dr Iain Staffell of Imperial College London, who leads the Drax Electric Insights report series, commented: “Wind power is blowing away gas and coal from Britain’s energy mix, and in just a decade, we’ve gone from relying completely on the polluting fuels of the past to embracing the clean energy technologies of the future.
“The shift to wind as the largest power source by capacity is a clear sign of the progress we’ve made, showing countries around the world that they can decarbonise their power grids when government and industry work together.” [Talkshop comment – not so fast, see Gridwatch].
Full article here.
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Another Gridwatch snapshot from a week ago:
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
output from gas power stations has seen a substantial decline of 23% in Q2 2023 compared to the same period last year
Massive price increases don’t help.
Key Point (?) is that our DEMAND for electricity is still reducing ( an observation ) otherwise we would already be having power cuts … But latest news this morning from Port Talbot Steel: Shutting down COAL to go electric… that’ll be fun.
As always though, wind ‘capacity’ doesn’t mean actual production.
“according to experts”.
I mean seriously? It’s comparing two numbers. They need experts to do that?
So there is more installed wind capacity in the UK – the problem is that the wind isn’t blowing and hence no power from that installed capacity.
Renewable energy is also intermittent and unreliable and can NEVER be relied on. The idiots from Imperial College need to have their electricity rationed by the amount the renewables are supplying, they might then see the light and stop prattling on about how good renewables are.
As for the words of ‘experts’, it reminds me of the definition I came up with in the early 50s – ‘X is the unknown quantity and a Spurt is a drip under pressure’ – I thing that fits here very well.
“This marks the first time in more than a century that the UK has more installed wind capacity than gas generation, according to experts.”
The ‘experts’ are wrong if their claim relates to public electricity generation.
Delabole wind farm began generating in 1991.
https://www.positive.news/environment/energy/renewable-energy-meet-the-family-behind-the-uks-first-wind-farm/
At that time, British Gas banned the use of its product for public electricity generation, arguing that it was ‘wasteful’ to allow gas to be used in a process at about 30% – 40% thermal efficiency when even domestic consumers used it a double those %s.
It wasn’t until Ofgas stepped in and decreed BG had no right to dictate how its product should be used, that power station developers requested gas supplies for public electricity generation.
The first gas-fired power station was Rye House, Hoddesdon commissioned in 1993.
[NB Natural gas fired Lots Road Power Station – but its output was for London Underground, not public consumption.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lots_Road_Power_Station
what a load of blazing codswallop! Windmills and solar arrays are truly stupid ways to generate base load and always will be. Virtue signaling at this level is pure brain barf by people whose brains have not yet descended.
We have recently had a whole week with
No wind electricity at all. Well 3% sometimes
So let’s talk capacity versus generation for September thus far (to 17th) Wind capacity 27.9GW, generation 1.26TWh. Solar capacity 15.6GW, generation, 0.743TWh. Hydro Capacity 1.8GW, generation 0.081TWh. So a combined non combustion renewable capacity of a staggering 45.3GW has generated 2.084TWh.
Meanwhile, over the same period, under 6GW of aged Nuclear capacity (an eighth of renewables) has generated 2.117TWh.
Think about it, a tiny area of Heysham (that probably 97% of the UK population has never even heard of) bounded by the sea, a ferry port, a golf course and a holiday camp has generated more electricity in September so far than every single Offshore wind turbine in the UK combined AND with lower CO2 emissions .
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Heysham+Nuclear+Power+Station/@54.0301557,-2.917884,3078m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x487b6034293e6d0f:0x166b7bd36eefcfb0!8m2!3d54.0301526!4d-2.9153037!16zL20vMGM3NXYy?entry=ttu
But the greens don’t like it!!!!
Golly , Ray Sanders, wizard post!
So the range of possibility for wind power is about 0-75% of installed capacity, comparing Ray S’s figures to this…
…on 10th January 2023 British wind farms averaged a record 21.69GW of generation.
https://grid.iamkate.com/
Granted that’s not very scientific, but gives the general idea – close to 0% being more likely than the other end of the scale.
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How the wind industry works…or doesn’t? No rush to get things built and earn money from power generation – that tells us something about subsidy dependence.
‘UK offshore wind farms delayed amidst renewables auction fallout’
Monday 18 September 2023
According to The Sunday Telegraph, at least two major companies have decided to slow down their investments to the bare minimum required to keep their projects afloat.
This situation has been described as a “holding pattern,” with developers waiting for more favourable conditions.
There’a a lot of it about.
“America’s Bet on Wind Power Is Running Into a Big Problem”
https://www.barrons.com/articles/offshore-wind-power-energy-costs-24a9b387
“Australia’s biggest wind precinct hit by connection delays and cost blowout”
https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-wind-precinct-hit-by-connection-delays-and-cost-blowout/
“Investments in wind energy are down – Europe must get market design and green industrial policy right”
https://windeurope.org/newsroom/press-releases/investments-in-wind-energy-are-down-europe-must-get-market-design-and-green-industrial-policy-right/
Barron’s (‘a Dow Jones company’) says wind *investments* have ‘the potential for substantial write-downs ahead’. Not what *investors* want to hear 😮
Either way, when there’s something for nothing, where there’s money to be made, there’s a catch – Fistfull too: https://www.agrarheute.com/braunvieh/wirtschaft-politik/tennisballgrosser-hagel-hof-weltrekordkuh-611035 and it is NOT milking the COO ( kuh to you) … Hoo would have panels when this can happen? But I saw that some Coo holders (Farmers) have panels as fences / windbreaks and can work in between them. …
Taking comparison further, my data for the first half of September could be viewed as a “cherry pick” though 17 days is hardly a short period. So I shall take the last 28 days
22/8 to 18/9.
Offshore wind (over 14GW capacity) has generated 1.25TWh. How many £billions in ROC and CfD plus other add-ons have been paid to justify all this very new kit? Conversely Heysham at under 2GW capacity has generated 1.421TWh.
Onshore wind (also just over 14GW capacity) has generated 1.36TWh whilst Torness and Sizewell have a combined capacity of 2.4GW and generation of 1.613TWh.
The 3 nuclear sites above together with Hartlepool cover all of 1,500 hectares (and most of that is car park/offices/open space.) and few even know they are there. How obtrusive to the landscape is this as seen from the A1
https://www.google.com/maps/@55.9640797,-2.4114466,3a,75y,0.6h,88.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sII8ZFRAK5l57R9lQwFVmXA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
Is new nuclear really expensive when you consider the £billions paid annually to wind farms every year ad infinitum?
Just a NOTE to reduce confusion: nose Arts Grads in the MSM easily get us confused over Millions & Billions etc, if it’s not ‘US’ its F’n uk’d which tells a lot: So PLEASE could we have the Outputs ALSO in the Form of GWh ( GigaWatt Hours ) ?
I have enough a problem converting on the fly kW to HP and Inches to Metric anything. when 5/8″ is around 16mm and 1.56m is 5ft6″ ….and the combine’s Knife section is H638954 and an oil filter is T19044…. so’s you know were I’m coming from like ” I’m an interpreter of interpretations.”