(c) renewz.biz

This is from the German (?) website maschinenmarkt.international which I hadn’t seen before. Is it strange or not that I didn’t find it on a UK site first? It’s another of these reports of the growing potency of our renewables sector. Here’s an earlier one:

‘Wind farms powered 4 million Scottish homes last month’ and there are only 2.4 million ‘households’ in Scotland
The report is based on figures from WWF Scotland for March 2017:

Total provided to National Grid: 1 240 095 MW

Percentage of demand by Scottish households: 136% (3.3 million homes)

Percentage of total demand by homes, business and industry: 58%

On two days, above demand provided by wind power alone 102% and 130%

Increase on total provided to National Grid in March 2016 81%
An important factor to bear in mind is that March 2017 was not especially windy so this is an indication of real increases in the actual wind power resources which can only lead to more consistent levels of supply throughout the year. Add this to the developments in marine turbines and solar power and Scotland is well on the way to 100% renewable self-sufficiency. The only potential barrier is the UK government’s decision to end support for onshore wind power. However the growth of the even more efficient offshore and especially floating wind farms of the kind described below may significantly reduce the the effects of this constraint:

‘The Biggest in the World!’ 270 tidal energy turbines to be installed to provide sustainable power to Scotland

http://www.maschinenmarkt.international/scotland-sets-new-wind-power-record-a-604466/