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Why Britain generates more offshore wind than any country on Earth

8 replies

JuliaMaesa · 26/05/2026 16:20

With solar power quite high right now, this popped into my feed.

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https://youtu.be/uuIiCQwVYh4

OP posts:
JuliaMaesa · 09/06/2026 12:16

Solar and wind providing 58% of todays UK electricity needs.

The longer the Iran war goes on, the less oil and gas are worth to the UK. Why pay for what you are getting "free" ?

Why Britain generates more offshore wind than any country on Earth
OP posts:
GasPanic · 09/06/2026 13:21

The way wind power has ramped up in the UK is amazing over the last few years.

This is why people that claim we are doing nothing to try to alleviate climate change are talking nonsense.

You only have to fly over the North Sea to see the sheer scale of offshore wind which many people do not appreciate.

But ...

Wind power in itself does have issues. The irregular supply. The problems in getting the power from where it is needed to the consumer - lack of electrical infrastructure. The issues regarding sourcing of the materials (rare earths for turbines). The strategic weakness of having a singificant proportion of power generation in the North Sea running via undersea cables that can be snapped by subs.

Wind power alone cannot power the UK, no matter how much of it we install. And I think ultimately storage to mitigate wind variability will not be practical. We will probably need to deepen our interconnectivity with other markets in order to make wind economical, which will always lead to the scarcity issues in times of crisis.

In a sense we have pushed too far forward with wind and left other power sources behind. Nuclear for example really needs to be pushed forward for baseload, we could be doing a lot better with solar (solar is beginning to ramp up again now) and we need more interconnectors to mitigate over/under supply rather than just building more wind power.

Wind is no more "free" than nuclear is. For offshore wind the installation cost is enourmous - the turbines are truly gigantic.

Maybe we should also post snapshots of the UKs power generation when the wind isn't blowing to see what that is like. Just for balance.

JuliaMaesa · 09/06/2026 14:49

Maybe we should also post snapshots of the UKs power generation when the wind isn't blowing to see what that is like. Just for balance.

The interest this thread has garnered suggests it's likely to be eschewed in favour of fripperies.

However since the beginning of the year, solar + wind has not fallen below 30% of demand. So TL;DR is that close to one third of the UKs electricity is now coming from those hated panels and windmills. And will continue to do so as more are added.

And that is before we look at the potential of plug-in (balcony) solar to shave another 10% of that for "free".

OP posts:
JuliaMaesa · 13/06/2026 14:19

Solar + wind now at 69% of todays demand ...

Why Britain generates more offshore wind than any country on Earth
OP posts:
Backedoffhackedoff · 13/06/2026 14:20

This is very interesting thanks OP!

JuliaMaesa · 13/06/2026 14:27

Backedoffhackedoff · 13/06/2026 14:20

This is very interesting thanks OP!

Remember all that net zero that some people have been told to hate ?

Well, you are seeing it right there. 69% of the UKs energy is not coming from foreign gas or oil.

With balcony solar starting to be a thing (think of it as growing your own electricity to reduce your bills) being less reliant on unreliable sources can't be a bad thing.

OP posts:
GoneWithTHeWindJammers · 13/06/2026 14:29

The House of Commons generates a lot of wind

Mooploop · 13/06/2026 14:32

Is not 69% of the UKs energy, it's today's electricity demand.
Energy is more than electricity.
Electricity is ca 21% of the total energy consumption.

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