(REW Team): Britain become the second highest producer of wind generation in Europe, surpassing Spain, according to data released by EnAppSys…
The new data looked at levels of European wind generation in the first 23 weeks of 2020 (January through May) and found that Britain ranked second after Germany during the period.
Britain generated 12.2% of the overall share, a 3% increase compared to 2019, while Spain’s contribution decreased from 13% to 10.7%. The increase in GB was a result of a 4% increase in installed wind capacity coupled with a 30% increase in generation on a like-for-like basis versus 2019.
The last two months of the period saw a decline due to a combination of low wind, the reduction of wind generation as a result of low demand during COVID-19 and very mild weather.
In early to mid-February 2020, the total level of wind generation in Europe passed the 14 TWh mark, surpassing the previous record of 13.6 TWh in March 2019.
Wind generation’s newest record peaked at the end of February, with 14.9 TWh produced. Germany contributed about 40% of the total followed by Britain with 13% during this period. France ranked third (9%) followed by Spain (4%).
At the beginning of March, Spain experienced strong winds that generated around 20% of the total European wind generation, which represents a total of 2 TWh. In this time period, Spain also exported its surplus energy to France.
As a result, Spain ranked second place, after Germany, which contributed only 6% more during this week. Furthermore, Spain was the only country other than Germany that was able to generate more than 2 TWh during a single week.
As seen in the graph below, Germany contributed the highest share of wind generation during the 23-week period – 69 TWh in total including onshore and offshore. This was followed by Britain with 26 TWh, which experienced steadier winds over this time opposed to Spain. As a result, Britain ranked second with a total of 25.6 TWh followed by Spain with 22.3 TWh.
Paul Verrill, Director of EnAppSys, said, “Installed levels of renewable generation continues to grow in the British market, particularly offshore wind, and there are a number of large projects under construction which should see Great Britain close the gap in the ‘league table’ with Germany as the leading wind generation country. The reduced electricity demand has enabled grid and market stakeholders to see the operation of markets with very high renewables.”
