Govt’s Wind Strategy Ignores Intermittency

By Paul Homewood

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-acceleration-of-homegrown-power-in-britains-plan-for-greater-energy-independence

Central to the strategy is an ambition to build offshore wind from 12GW to 50GW, along with an increase in solar power. Indeed these were really the only concrete promises; most of the rest of the strategy is little more than flimflam.

Technically, if you assume average outputs throughout the year, it should be possible to get to 95% of low carbon electricity by 2030, or close to it, with suitable assumptions about nuclear capacity:

The total annual generation above comes to 332 TWh, close to likely full demand.

But, of course, intermittent renewables don’t operate at the same rate all year round. I have analysed the daily offshore wind generation data available from the CfD database for last summer. The CfD database covers about 40% of the UK’s total offshore capacity, so should give a fairly accurate picture.