(c) ALAMY
It was pretty windy on Monday past though less so than I expected as I prepared the garden furniture for the onslaught. Despite that it was windy enough to send our wind farms into overdrive, producing 41 866MWh, enough for more than 7 million homes and so 206% of our needs. We have only a third of the above number of homes.
This is not the first time this has happened and its becoming more common as new wind farms come on stream. See these previous reports:
‘Scotland ‘Saudi of wind’ or ‘Gagging on Wind Power’
Now, I know we can’t store much of the surplus yet but plans are underway and early developments are in place to make sure we can long before the target of 100% renewables sustainability in 2030. See these:
£20 million Scottish renewable energy storage unit for Broxburn will be first in UK
Storing Scotland’s massive renewable energy production
WWF Scotland’s director punned, giving credit the SNP administration:
‘Monday proved to be a great day for renewable electricity output, with wind turbines alone providing enough to power 7million homes and way more than Scotland’s total electricity needs. We’re blown away (😉) by these figures but they are part of a pattern of increasingly green power production made possible thanks to many years of political support in Scotland. Across the year, renewables now contribute over half of our electricity needs.’
Something to listen to as you relax after reading this:
Talking-up Scotland 
Fabulous numbers. However, whilst I don’t want to detract from this achievement, household electricity consumption only accounts for part of the electricity used each day. I can only currently access the internet on a phone so can’t do any research into total electricity consumed, but it must be a lot more than simply household consumption.
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Total national demand met on some days
In August 2017, we saw a 30% increase on the previous year, 93% of the demand for homes and 48% of the total national demand for electricity. With the new offshore farms and tidal energy plants and their higher output and higher consistency of supply, the target of 100% renewable energy generation guaranteed every day is easily on track for 2030.
https://stv.tv/news/scotland/1397470-wind-farms-could-have-powered-93-of-homes-in-august/
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Wonderful, thank you.
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The Western Link
Subsea connector from Hunterstone to Connah’s Quay in Wales capacity 2000 Mw started 2013 completed 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-26483304
It’s purpose is to export surplus renewable electricity from Scotland to England, an East coast connector is planned.
Started before our Referendum, during which Scots were told that England would not want their renewable electricity
Storage:
Grants were awarded for refurbishment of the machinery of Scotlands Hydro schemes by Blair Gov. However they were only applicable for schemes up to a specified capacity. In order to obtain the funding the owners of some schemes reduced their capacity, this information was taken from a letter by a Nick Dekker in the Herald several years ago.
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Very interesting CB. Thanks
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