High winds last week forced some of Britain's wind turbines to shut down because of fears of overloading the National Grid, it has been disclosed. Wind turbines operate on the basis that the best wind speeds are just over 30mph – enough to shift the rotating blades without risking damage to the turbine itself.
But some surprise storms recently swept the UK with record gusts of wind, forcing some wind farms to close down to protect them from damage. The war in Ukraine has led the UK Government to vow to end imports of Russian oil, while the EU wants to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas by two thirds by the end of the year.
It means that work is ongoing to increase renewable energy projects as rapidly as possible. But last week, it was reported that winds across Britain were so strong that the National Grid had to ask some wind farms in Scotland to stop operating in a bid to prevent overloading the electrical systems.
The National Grid also asked other wind farms to cut their output by 25 megawatts. Although a minor amount, it has highlighted the problems the UK experiences with a grid that cannot store large amounts of energy.
Andy Willis, CEO of Kona Energy, has previously said: “Government needs to do more to incentivise flexible energy storage to complement our growing fleet of renewables. While driving down wholesale energy costs, a significant penetration of renewables leads to increasing constraint costs. This can be quickly solved through the delivery of large scale energy storage projects.”
Experts say that the only way around the problem of unpredictable wind patterns is to build huge battery storage facilities that can store electricity generated from solar and wind farms when the weather allows.
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