Future of renewable energy in balance as UK suffers wind drought - with 'global stilling' to come

  • 📰 SkyNews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 38 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 19%
  • Publisher: 67%

Energy Energy Headlines News

Energy Energy Latest News,Energy Energy Headlines

The UK is gambling on wind in the future of renewables - but as we're seeing, having the turbines doesn't make them turn.

Yet as people settled down to work on Monday morning, gas power stations had been ramped up, producing 61% of our electricity.This snapshot is unusual, but it does show the limitations of renewable energy in some weather conditions.Scientists working for the United Nations' intergovernmental panel on climate change have looked at what could happen to wind speeds in future.

It's called global stilling. And it's caused by the rapid warming of the Arctic, which is narrowing the temperature difference with the tropics, a gap that drives wind. In the UK, the average wind speed is expected to drop by 2% to 3% by 2050, and 10% by the end of the century.We have 14.2GW of onshore wind turbines, with another 13.7GW offshore.to 50GW by 2030, and to turn off gas and coal power stations by 2035.Although the government also plans to expand nuclear energy to 24GW by 2050, up from about 6GW now, that would not fill the gap left by the lack of wind.

We will need to find some way of storing vast amounts of energy, invest in new sources, such as tidal power, or import much more through long distance cables.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

'Wind drought ' heard it all now! 🤣🤣🤣

But wind-farms are renewable energy, right?

Good absolutely hate the bastard wind & all the damage it does bloody leafs & fence panals all over the garden - good riddance.

What absolutely garbage 🤦🏻

😂really 🙄

Bet no cnt thought of that

Oh do shut up

😂pull the other one!🤦🏼‍♂️

Rather enormous emission of tidal energy which never stops. Renewables have to be a mix of wind, solar & tidal. Prob nuclear too.

Should have gone harder and faster with nuclear.

We need oil, coal & gas now.

Wind drought… that’s a good one😂😂😂😂

skynews on the side of big oil and gas companies

Stand on the 1st tee of any golf course and you’ll soon find there is no wind drought

🤣🤣🤣wind lockdowns next..

Could always depend on methane. There’s an abundance of it in Westminster!

If only people had said this would happen

Great idea to stop using fossil fuels.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 35. in ENERGY

Energy Energy Latest News, Energy Energy Headlines