Did wind live up to expectations on Global Wind Day 2021?
21 June 2021
Did wind live up to expectations on Global Wind Day 2021?
Well, the answer is again "no" as shown in the graph below.
Last year wind only contributed an average of 1.5% of grid demand on Global Wind Day and this year has performed much better, contributing 13.2% to demand on average. However this is still a very poor performance. The main reason for this was a wind lull, where wind contributed less than 5% of demand, which lasted for 6½ hours between 3.30am and 11am. During this lull there was a period of 2 hours when wind contributed only about 2% of demand. The main contributor to meeting demand was gas (CCGT) at 39.5% on average, supported by nuclear at 22.4% and biomass at 9.5%. Whilst nuclear and biomass provided a steady base contribution to demand, gas, together with imports via interconnectors to Europe, was being flexed to meet the peaks in demand.
The government’s strategy to meet its zero carbon targets proposes a three-fold increase in installed wind power by 2030 and a doubling of biomass, whilst halving nuclear capacity and greatly reducing gas capacity and generation for a similar level of demand.
You may draw your own conclusions as to whether this is feasible from the above.