Wind Power Commitments

By 2020, the UK is committed to producing 35% of electricity from renewables, as specified by the EU.

The problem is that wind power is regarded as intermittent, and some form of load balancing must be employed.

The BWEA states that 'there is, as far as we are aware, no evidence that demonstrates that windless days regularly coincide with peak demands on the UK electricity network'.

The REF (Renewable Energy Foundation) and the EIUG (Energy Intensive Users Group) are both sceptical about load balancing wind power. They claim that high-voltage interconnections with neighbouring countries would be required. Additionally, the National Grid are legally disallowed from building commercial storage since this is regarded as power generation equipment and outside their remit. The EIUG states that wind power is 'fundamentally insecure' and sees little chance of it ever meeting 30% of the UK's demand with a reasonable level of reliability.

Source: IET