Wind is poised to overtake gas as Britain’s main source of electricity for the first time this year, as the country moves increasingly towards green energy.
Research from Offshore Energies UK shows how wind outperformed gas during the first four months of 2024, with experts predicting that this trend will continue throughout the year.
The industry body’s new report said: “It is possible wind (onshore and offshore) will be the largest supply source of electricity this year.
“Wind has provided more supplies than gas in the first four months of the year. This led to the carbon intensity of the UK grid falling to its lowest daily level on April 15, at 19g of CO2 per kilowatt hour.”
Last year, wind generated 82 terawatt hours (TWh) of power compared with 96TWh from gas and 37TWh from nuclear.
However, several major wind farms have come into operation in recent months, including the world’s largest farm at Dogger Bank in the North Sea, 75 miles off the Yorkshire coast.
When complete, Dogger Bank will consist of 277 giant offshore turbines that generate enough electricity to power 6m homes a year.
It and others like it have pushed wind output to record levels.
The report said: “Gas will still have an important role in bringing flexibility to the system but offshore wind will provide most of the growth in power supply in the coming decades as the Government aims to deliver a decarbonised power system by 2035.
“The UK has about 15 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind generation capacity, with targets to grow this to 50GW by 2030.”
However, the report also warned that reaching this target will be a challenge requiring
the UK to install around two turbines a day for the next seven years.
It said: “There is a huge opportunity to grow low-carbon power supplies, increase manufacturing capacity and provide new business opportunities. But cost inflation, longer consenting timeframes and grid access all complicate the picture, deterring some investors.”
The same report also found that British consumers had to spend £80bn on imported fuels such as petrol, diesel and gas last year because of shrinking output from the North Sea.
Those costs are likely to keep increasing because oil and gas output from the North Sea is shrinking at 8pc a year, partly because of the current Government’s windfall tax deterring investors.
