After a century of either coal or gas being our main source of electricity, wind power is now Britain’s single largest source of electricity generation. Over the 12 months to April, Britain’s wind farms produced 83 TWh of electricity, compared to 81 TWh from gas-fired power stations. Wind produced 32% of the country’s demand, versus 31% from natural gas. It’s important this is measured year-round, as this accounts properly for the intermittency of wind, which ‘doesn’t always blow’.
The annual electricity generated from wind and natural gas in Britain since 2010.
Wind has been the largest source for short periods of time, first producing more than any other source for a single hour back in November 2013. February 2020 was the first full month when wind output beat gas or coal. Taking the top spot for a full year signals a genuine shift in our primary source of electricity. This was down to both wind output growing and reliance on gas falling. Compared to 12 months ago, wind output increased 6% and gas output fell 25%.
The large fall in gas output is due to more electricity being imported from abroad, with imports resuming from France after their nuclear outages last year, plus increases from Norway and the new Viking link to Denmark. Wind output increased both because of stronger wind speeds, particularly during the storms of December 2023 and January 2024, and new capacity coming online. The 1 GW Seagreen wind farm off the coast of Scotland came fully online, and Dogger Bank A in the North Sea started generating its first power.
As of last year, there were ten countries in the world with either wind or solar power as their largest source of electricity. For solar power, these are all among the least developed countries in the Middle East and North Africa. For wind power, they are all coastal European countries. Britain is set to continue this trend at the end of the year, becoming only the sixth country in the world where wind farms are the top source of electricity.
The countries where wind or solar PV are the largest sources of electricity, and their first year of achieving this. Only countries with population above 1 million are shown.
