Wind energy statistics from the UK demonstrated a recent milestone in history, as wind was shown to generate more electricity than coal. In April, 2,290 gigawatt hours (GWh) were produced from wind compared to 1,755 GWh produced from coal.
According to the UK, there was a drop in the amount of electricity produced from coal to zero several times within a month. Within one week, as electricity from coal dropped to zero between the late hours of Monday May 9th to Tuesday morning and dropped later in the week for over 12 hours, wind produced more electricity.
Maf Smith, Renewable UK’s Deputy Chief Executive stated, “April was the first month in the UK’s history in which wind provided more of our power than coal. The Government has said that in future our electricity needs to come from nuclear, gas and renewables and the fact that wind has now leapfrogged coal shows that we are delivering on this ambition.”
The sudden drop was described as being the first time the UK failed to generate electricity from coal since 1882, when the first centralized public coal-fired generator opened. While the green statistics point in favor of wind energy, there have also been recent closures of coal-fired power plants. Not only have the coal plants become less economic and favorable, but the government has a strong interest in moving away from coal, and hopes to see changes to renewable energy by 2025.
Additionally there has been an expansion in the amount of renewable sources used. In the final quarter of 2015, 27% of the UK’s total power came from renewable sources that include wind energy. Even with a critical eye of the reported statistics, it is expected that the shift from coal to renewable sources like wind power will allow a cleaner world.
