he UK's wind farms generated more power than its nuclear power stations on Tuesday, the National Grid says.
The energy network operator said it was caused by a combination of high winds and faults in nuclear plants.
Wind farms are causing controversy in rural areas and the government is choking off planning permission for new sites.
But for a 24-hour period yesterday, spinning blades produced more energy than splitting atoms.
Wind made up 14.2% of all generation and nuclear offered 13.2%.
It follows another milestone on Saturday, when wind generated a record amount of power - 6,372 MW, according to National Grid.
This formed nearly 20% of the the UK's electricity, albeit at a time at the weekend when demand is relatively low.
The energy network operator said it was caused by a combination of high winds and faults in nuclear plants.
Wind farms are causing controversy in rural areas and the government is choking off planning permission for new sites.
But for a 24-hour period yesterday, spinning blades produced more energy than splitting atoms.
Wind made up 14.2% of all generation and nuclear offered 13.2%.
It follows another milestone on Saturday, when wind generated a record amount of power - 6,372 MW, according to National Grid.
This formed nearly 20% of the the UK's electricity, albeit at a time at the weekend when demand is relatively low.
Reactors downBut wind power's ascendancy over nuclear is expected to be temporary.
The situation is caused by windy conditions boosting the output from turbines at a time when eight out of the UK's 15 nuclear reactors are offline.
EDF Energy said current ageing reactors are down for a number of reasons:
The situation is caused by windy conditions boosting the output from turbines at a time when eight out of the UK's 15 nuclear reactors are offline.
EDF Energy said current ageing reactors are down for a number of reasons:
- Sizewell B is in the middle of a planned "statutory outage" for maintenance and refuelling
- Hunterston B Reactor 4 is down for maintenance, expected back in early November
- At Dungeness B, one unit is being refuelled and the other is expected back online soon after being shut down after a fault on a boiler pump was discovered
- The four reactors at Heysham and Hartlepool were taken offline in August after a crack was found on a boiler spine.
'Convenient whipping boy'A government spokesman said a "diverse energy mix" was essential to the UK's energy security.
"We're preventing a predicted energy crunch by turning round a legacy of underinvestment and neglect.
"To deliver this, we need a diverse energy mix that includes renewable sources like wind and solar alongside nuclear and technologies like carbon capture and storage so we can continue to use fossil fuels in a cleaner way."
But wind energy has proved controversial in rural areas and among some politicians.
Last week the former environment secretary Owen Paterson condemned the wind industry for soaking up subsidies, producing a "paltry" amount of power and ruining landscapes. He called instead for a new generation of mini nuclear plants dotted around the country.
The government is offering more generous subsidies to nuclear than wind in the long term.
But Jennifer Webber, a spokeswoman for RenewableUK, the trade body, said: "Wind power is often used as a convenient whipping boy by political opponents and vested interests.
"All the while, it's been quietly powering millions of homes across the UK and providing a robust response to its vocal detractors."
"We're preventing a predicted energy crunch by turning round a legacy of underinvestment and neglect.
"To deliver this, we need a diverse energy mix that includes renewable sources like wind and solar alongside nuclear and technologies like carbon capture and storage so we can continue to use fossil fuels in a cleaner way."
But wind energy has proved controversial in rural areas and among some politicians.
Last week the former environment secretary Owen Paterson condemned the wind industry for soaking up subsidies, producing a "paltry" amount of power and ruining landscapes. He called instead for a new generation of mini nuclear plants dotted around the country.
The government is offering more generous subsidies to nuclear than wind in the long term.
But Jennifer Webber, a spokeswoman for RenewableUK, the trade body, said: "Wind power is often used as a convenient whipping boy by political opponents and vested interests.
"All the while, it's been quietly powering millions of homes across the UK and providing a robust response to its vocal detractors."
interesting
The US has had wind farms since 1981, what the left and the green movement don’t want to talk about regarding windmills is (as usual) the truth. The truth is: windmills, like solar panels, break down. And like solar panels, windmills produce less energy before they break down than the energy it took to make them. That’s the part liberals forget: making windmills and solar panels takes energy, energy from coal, oil, and diesel, energy that extracts and refines raw materials, energy that transports those materials to where they will be re-shaped into finished goods, energy to manufacture those goods. More energy than those finished windmills and solar panels will ever produce.
There are many hidden truths about the world of wind turbines from the pollution and environmental damage caused in China by manufacturing bird choppers, the blight on people’s lives of noise and the flicker factor and the countless numbers of birds that are killed each year by these blots on the landscape. The symbol of Green renewable energy, our saviour from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the subsidies taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or the wind speed is too high.The US experience with wind farms has left over 14,000 wind turbines abandoned and slowly decaying, in most instances the turbines are just left as symbols of a dying Climate Religion, nowhere have the Green Environmentalists appeared to clear up their mess or even complain about the abandoned wind farms.
Oilman T. Boone Pickens made a statement on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday that should make every green jobs advocate including Barack Obama, Al Gore, and Van Jones sit up and take notice.
"I've lost my ass" in wind power. This came moments after he said, "The jobs are in the oil and gas industry in the United States"
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-s...t-my-wind-power-jobs-are-oil-and-gas-industry
"I've lost my ass" in wind power. This came moments after he said, "The jobs are in the oil and gas industry in the United States"
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-s...t-my-wind-power-jobs-are-oil-and-gas-industry
This makes a lot of sense & most people including myself dont think of the energy it takes to produce the windmills & solar panels & were unaware they dont produce enough energy to even replace themselves....I was all for this before but now am unsure in light of this new knowledge if true...
