Info!
UPDATED 1 Sept: The EI library in London is temporarily closed to the public, as a precautionary measure in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The Knowledge Service will still be answering email queries via email , or via live chats during working hours (09:15-17:00 GMT). Our e-library is always open for members here: eLibrary , for full-text access to over 200 e-books and millions of articles. Thank you for your patience.
UPDATED 1 Sept: The EI library in London is temporarily closed to the public, as a precautionary measure in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The Knowledge Service will still be answering email queries via email , or via live chats during working hours (09:15-17:00 GMT). Our e-library is always open for members here: eLibrary , for full-text access to over 200 e-books and millions of articles. Thank you for your patience.
New UK wind energy record, while RWE scraps the Atlantic Array
Britain’s wind energy industry broke the record for wind energy generated on 29 November – National Grid confirmed that, from 2.30 until 3pm on that day, wind power produced an average of 6,004 MW, which accounted for 13.5% of the UK’s total electricity demand at that time. (National Grid measures electricity generation in half-hour periods.)
The previous record, set on 15 September last year, was 5,739 MW. That record for a half-hour period was broken several times on 29 November, with wind regularly generating more than 13% of the UK’s total electricity demand.
Rather less welcome news for the wind industry was that Germany's RWE has scrapped plans to build the £4bn Atlantic Array offshore wind farm because of ‘market conditions and significant technical challenges.’ The challenges are understood to relate to conditions at the seabed of the Bristol Channel where the wind farm was to have been built. Paul Cowling, Director of Offshore Wind at RWE Innogy, said the decision was not ‘taken lightly, however given the technological challenges and market conditions, now is not the right time for RWE to continue to progress with this project.’
The 220-turbine Atlantic Array was planned in an area of 200 km2, about 16 km from the English coast and 22 km from the south Wales coast.
RenewableUK’s Director of Policy, Dr Gordon Edge, made a point on energy affordability: ‘This is just one of a number of offshore wind farm projects in UK waters. It’s important that we focus on the most economic of these sites so that UK consumers pay the minimum required to bring this technology to commercial competitiveness and build a world-beating industry.’
Edge added: ‘We already have 22 offshore wind farms operating successfully, providing electricity for two and a half million households. Four more are under construction right now, a further eight have been approved and another dozen are awaiting consent. That means that the current pipeline of projects gives us the potential to have 20 GW of wind energy installed in UK waters – more than five times as much as we have now.’
· Meanwhile, the UK’s first floating wind farm is set to be located off the Scottish coast, following the announcement that the Crown Estate has granted an agreement for lease to Statoil for the next phase of its Hywind project. The project comprises five, 6 MW floating turbines operating in waters exceeding 100 m in depth at a site in Buchan Deep, 20–30 km off the coast of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. With a total generating capacity of 30 MW, the scheme is set to be the largest floating wind project announced to date in Europe and one of the largest announced worldwide. The world’s first full-scale floating turbine has been in operation since 2009 off the coast of Norway.
