Scots high on wind power

Wind generated enough power to supply the electrical needs of 97 per cent of Scottish households during 2015, figures published recently have revealed.

Analysis by WWF Scotland of data provided by Weather Energy found that a record final month of 2015 ended  a “huge year” for wind and solar power in Scotland in which the contribution of wind power was calculated to be up by 16 per cent on the previous year.

For the month of December, wind power generated enough power to supply over 100 per cent of Scottish  households on 29 of the 31 days.  It also generated the equivalent of 63 per cent of Scotland’s entire electricity needs (including homes, business and industry) for the month. When looking at data for the whole of 2015, wind turbines provided a record amount of electricity to the National Grid — enough  to supply, on average, the electrical needs of 2.34 million homes. This represents an increase of 16 per cent compared with 2014.

It also provided enough power to supply over 100 per cent of Scottish household needs during six out of the 12 months and generated the equivalent of 41 per cent of Scotland’s entire electricity needs for the year.

WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said that the use of renewables in Scotland had curbed millions of tonnes of carbon emissions, and called on all political parties to put forward policies to make  Scotland the  European Union’s  first fully renewable electricity nation by 2030.