Can wind meet all our electricity needs?
At the moment, wind only meets less than 1% of the UK's electricity needs,
but the UK wind resource is enormous. The Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI) calculates that onshore wind could theoretically meet 80% of our
current electricity demand, and that the offshore wind resource could supply
10 times our needs.
Yet the UK remains close to the bottom of the "league
table" compared with other European countries in terms of the % of our
electricity consumption met by renewable energy. This is despite the fact
that the UK has the largest renewable resources in Europe. Germany for
example has only a quarter of the UK's offshore wind resource, but German
plans for offshore wind far outstrip the UK's ambitions. Meanwhile Denmark
already generates 20% of its electricity from wind power.
A report in 2002 by AEA technology for Greenpeace - Sea Wind East - shows
that nuclear power's contribution to our electricity needs (currently around
a quarter) could be replaced by 2020 by wind farms off the coast of East
Anglia. That's just one region, and one renewable technology.
In actual fact it's unlikely that wind power alone will meet all our
electricity needs, but a balance of renewable sources - including wind,
wave, solar and biomass. (see "What happens when the wind stops blowing").
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