Wind farms created more energy than coal in the UK last year
6 replies, posted
[quote]Windfarms across the UK generated more electricity in 2016 than coal power plants for the first time, according to an analyst’s estimates.
Three major coal power stations closed last year, causing coal electricity generation to plummet to 9.2%, down from 22.6% in 2015. Wind power provided 11.5% of generation in 2016, slightly down from 12% in 2015.
Coal’s collapse was described as a “milestone” by climate analysts Carbon Brief, and saw coal-fuelled electricity output at its lowest in 80 years. Green groups described it as “fantastic news”.
“The past 12 months have seen a year of firsts for the UK’s electricity system. At the broadest level, the UK grid is changing as centralised power stations are joined by thousands of smaller sites, particularly renewables, as part of efforts to decarbonise electricity supplies,” wrote Simon Evans, policy editor at Carbon Brief.
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[url]https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/06/uk-wind-power-coal-green-groups-carbon-taxes[/url]
:toot:
Well....
the story here is more that coal produced even less energy than what little is produced by wind farms, but it's being spun to sound more like the UK is doing a great job on renewable energy which it isn't.
Like it says in the source, we actually produced less wind energy than 2015 in 2016, it's just that coal absolutely plummeted and almost all of the slack was taken by gas.
This is not a win for wind energy but is at least a loss for coal energy (which is a good thing for sure since coal is a terrible source of energy) but we still need to do a lot more to produce more renewables and the state of renewables in the UK is looking dire thanks to our current government.
[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;51636456]Well....
the story here is more that coal produced even less energy than what little is produced by wind farms, but it's being spun to sound more like the UK is doing a great job on renewable energy which it isn't.
Like it says in the source, we actually produced less wind energy than 2015 in 2016, it's just that coal absolutely plummeted and almost all of the slack was taken by gas.
This is not a win for wind energy but is at least a loss for coal energy (which is a good thing for sure since coal is a terrible source of energy) but we still need to do a lot more to produce more renewables and the state of renewables in the UK is looking dire thanks to our current government.[/QUOTE]
baby steps
[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;51636456]Well....
the story here is more that coal produced even less energy than what little is produced by wind farms, but it's being spun to sound more like the UK is doing a great job on renewable energy which it isn't.
Like it says in the source, we actually produced less wind energy than 2015 in 2016, it's just that coal absolutely plummeted and almost all of the slack was taken by gas.
This is not a win for wind energy but is at least a loss for coal energy (which is a good thing for sure since coal is a terrible source of energy) but we still need to do a lot more to produce more renewables and the state of renewables in the UK is looking dire thanks to our current government.[/QUOTE]
I don't see how coal energy being produced less isn't a win for wind energy, especially with this part of the article:
[quote]the UK grid is changing as centralised power stations are joined by thousands of smaller sites, particularly renewables[/quote]
Wind doesn't have to surpass coal at coal's height of power in order to be the best source of energy for a country.
Yeh but if you look at wind on it's own, not comparing to coal use which massively plummeted for reasons unrelated to wind, wind energy production was reduced. This is bad for wind power.
[editline]7th January 2017[/editline]
Don't get me wrong, it's great that coal power is being hugely reduced, I just don't see it as an inherent win for wind power.
If coal ceases and wind remains, then obviously it's a win for wind. If both go, then it's not.
Don't have to be the first to the finish line, sometimes you just have to finish.
Not saying much given coal has pretty much been completely replaced by gas in the UK.
Come back when wind matches coal in its hayday.
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