Wind Blows Up Big Time: This new mega-windfarm is going to power over 20% of UK households!

That's 6 million homes from one new offshore site. Wind is stepping up!

One of the less reported stories of recent years is the phenomenal growth of renewable energy over the last couple of decades. Having been been involved in campaigning on climate issues for over 2 decades, renewable has gone from a ‘nice but impractical’ idea to outcompeting fossil fuels in many areas of the world. This has meant a huge shift of investment into the sector - and that is staring to have major results, as such this caught my eye:

The first turbine to be completed in a project to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm, in the North Sea, has begun powering British homes and businesses.

Developers confirmed on Monday that Dogger Bank, which sits 70 nautical miles off the coast of Yorkshire, started producing power over the weekend as the first of 277 turbines was connected to the electricity grid.

The project, jointly developed by Britain’s SSE and Norway’s Equinor and Vårgrønn, will produce 3.6 gigawatts of power, enough for 6m homes, when it is completed in 2026.

What this project means as a percentage to the UK is that, with currently around 26.2M households, it makes this just over 21% of that number. So assuming the number of households grows a bit that still means arouns 20% of them by 2026. It is still a staggering number. This chart - from 2016 - shows the decades of growth of capacity and dropping of price. Plus, as the graph is from 2016; it’s going to be even better now!

Wind is blowing up, big-time and in a good way - and that gives me hope!

(Image, top, credit: Dogger Bank)