Last week, wind energy surpassed the 5GW energy generation mark, which is enough electricity to power 3 million homes for an entire year.
This landmark was achieved by the commissioning of 2 wind farm developments this month. The Vattenfall’s 300 MW Thanet offshore wind farm, which came on stream as of last week and the expansion of Fred Olsen Renewables’ Crystal Rig 200MW onshore wind farm in the Scottish Borders which was completed early September.
RenewableUK Chief Executive Maria McCaffery MBE, said last week: “Today’s developments are of tremendous significance for meeting our long term renewable energy targets.
“In 2002 the UK was generating around 2% of all electricity from renewable sources, we are now on the threshold of 10%, having increased outputs five fold.
“This demonstrates that, considering the current pipeline of projects, 2020 targets are realistic and achievable, provided the policies are in place.”
This is really beginning to seem like we may hit our targets regarding the Renewable Energy Strategy published in 2009, in which the Government outlined a scenario for the UK to reach around 30% of electricity from wind by 2020 in order to meet EU targets on reducing carbon emissions.