UK wind power doubles
Posted by DavidM in Wind | 19 February 2007
It took 14 years for the UK to reach 1 Gigawatt of electricity generation from wind power. The step to the second gigawatt took just 20 months and was reached with the commissioning of the 72 megawatt Braes of Doune wind farm.
The UK is now one of only seven countries producing 2 gigawatt or more from wind power. The others are the USA, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and India.
The UK has a target to produce 10% of it's electricity from renewables by 2010 (although Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry is quoting 20%) so we are going in the right direction.
However there are significant steps still to be made. There is a reported 771 megawatts of wind power under construction but a further 7.8 gigawatts is bogged down in the planning process.
The UK has a great natural resource in it's on- and off-shore wind. By developing the technology and commercialising it's use we have the potential to be a world leading in this field. Let's hope we continue to push hard and the third gigawatt comes even faster.
