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Seeing numerous renewable energy records broken and milestones passed has been a continuous source of encouraging news for our planet. We now have another impressive stat to celebrate: in the first half of 2019, Scotland generated enough energy from wind power to supply its houses twice over.
More specifically, turbines generated 9.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity between January and June 2019, enough to supply power to 4.47 million houses – not bad for a country that has around 2.6 million houses to its name.
It is a record high for wind energy in Scotland, and it means that the turbines could've provided enough electricity for every dwelling in Scotland, plus much of northern England too, for the first six months of the year.
March 2019 was the high watermark, with 2,194,981 MWh of output produced in the month.
The United Kingdom is on a roll as far as renewable energy is concerned, because it managed its longest stretch without relying on coal power since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century.
Coal power stations did not supply any energy to the grid for seven days in a row, according to the National Grid in the United Kingdom – a total of 167 consecutive hours. Gas turbines, solar energy, nuclear power, and other renewables all played a part.
That is in line with the government's target to do without coal entirely by 2025, and it looks like Scotland could have a big part to play in reaching this goal.
According to Science Alert, other countries are also benefiting from the increasing potential of renewables. Germany is another nation where renewable energy production has exceeded demand, thanks to great investment in wind and solar.
Then there Qinghai Province in northwest China – home to some five million citizens. The rapid improvement is down to both increased capacity and more efficient technology, as scientists try to figure out ways to generate more electricity from the same amount of sunshine or wind.
Scotland is something of a pioneer when it comes to wind power, with onshore and offshore farms currently at a capacity of 8,423 MW as of December 2018. The country hopes to supply all of its energy from renewables within the next 12 months, a target it's on course to meet.
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