Wind generation smashes annual and instant records in blustery start to new year

Wind and zero carbon generation records have been tumbling since Christmas in the United Kingdom, highlighting the strong growth in the country’s clean energy supplies over 2022.

As is often the case in the United Kingdom at this time of year, given the country’s particular weather conditions, wind energy generation records have undergone consistent rewriting over the first few weeks of 2023.

According to National Grid, the UK’s electricity system operator, maximum wind generation hit a new high on December 30, 2022, hitting 20,918MW. At the same time, zero carbon generation peaked at 87.2% of the country’s electricity mix.

However, on January 4, the zero carbon generation record hit a new high of 87.6%. And a week later wind generation again set a new record of maximum generation of 21,620MW.

According to a year-end review by National Grid, the UK’s electricity generation mix in 2022 saw a new r4cord share for wind energy of 26.8 per cent, beaten only by gas with 38.5%.

Nuclear energy was the only other generation source to make it into the double-digit realm, with 15.5%, and coal accounted for only 1.5% of electricity generation in 2022.

However, as the National Grid ESO Twitter account is currently demonstrating, wind generation in January is regularly accounting for more than 50% of British electricity – while gas is struggling to get out of the single-digit realm.

January is always a historic moment for UK renewable energy generation, and regularly serves to highlight the successes of the year just finished – just as spring does the same in Australia.

The first time wind generation provided over 20GW of electricity occurred during in November 2022, but has now set new records above that margin repeatedly in just a fortnight.

Zero carbon sources are not only setting records during the Northern winter, either, with zero carbon electricity sources providing over 50% of electricity in February, May, October, November, and December of 2022.