New UK record for wind power set today – 21.81 GW between 0900-0930 GMT

[toomuchtodo]

VikingLink turns up Dec 29, which will bring 800MW of clean wind energy to the UK from Denmark until transmission work in Denmark allows for the full 1.4GW link capacity to be utilized.

https://www.offshore-energy.biz/viking-link-worlds-largest-i...

https://www.viking-link.com/

[frereubu]

And it's going to get better:

"Ørsted is to press ahead with developing the world’s largest offshore wind farm in the North Sea after the UK increased financial support for the sector in a big boost for the Danish group after a string of setbacks."

https://www.ft.com/content/4d3cc6d4-f479-4607-9574-63e320af8... https://archive.is/Rm9Hi

[fulafel]

Denmark is a by a small margin a net importer of electricity, highly dependent on wind and imports. The total wind production seems to be about 6 GW on the best days, and quite tiny on the worst days, so it seems nice that the european grid can replace up to 25% of the the missing wind from the UK.

[jonatron]

I got paid to use electricity this morning: https://agileprices.co.uk/

[itsoktocry]

How have your energy costs looked, overall, over the past 2-3 years? Getting cheaper or more expensive?

I ask because I frequently see posts like this one, but then also that Europeans are paying more than ever etc. Hard to figure if we are putting a dent in anything.

[hunglee2]

UK could obviously be a wind / wave energy super power. Despite multi-decade mismanagement by government, we can be bullish about UK prospects, especially now Scottish Independence is receding from the conversation

[walthamstow]

I thought I read that wave/tidal was basically not worth the investment and ecological impact for the power it generates.

[throwaway2037]

    Despite multi-decade mismanagement by government

I disagree. Exactly this post shows much much progress the UK has made. Can you share some specifics of "multi-decade mismanagement by government"? Can you compare that to other highly developed countries?

    especially now Scottish Independence is receding from the conversation

Can you explain why this matters? I assume the UK minus Scotland has enough onshore and offshore locations to fully power itself with wind and solar.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I had a friend that lived in the Outer Hebrides (Northwest coast of Scotland).

He said it wasn't unusual to have gales in the winter, with >100Km/hr winds.

Seems to be a rich local resource.

[secfirstmd]

Why would Scottish independence matter? Are they gonna take their wind with them?

[gandalfian]

While impressive to be boring electricity use was about 30GW but direct heating by gas and oil consumption was another 150GW or so. Heat pumps might reduce that in theory but still quite a way to go...

[Arbortheus]

A super cheap wholesale price on a windy day like this.

Past year average: £97.90/MWh Right now: £5.99/MWh.

Better transmission and storage tech or better ways to scale demand at different times will be a game changer here.

[toomuchtodo]

It was once said that nuclear fission would be too cheap to meter. Turns out, that promise will be met with fusion at a distance.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37502924 (citations)

(edit @ oezi: wind power is solar power)

[Gibbon1]

At that price resistive heating would be cheaper than nat gas.

[jermaustin1]

I got it! A huge fan that blows a lot of wind when demand peaks!

[passwordoops]

Awesome. With increasing capacity they'll keep on breaking records. Now can we start sharing links to storage projects too? Because not every day is windy

[jonatron]

On 9 August 2019 there was a significant power cut due to lack of inertia. This duration was significantly reduced because of batteries [1]. Since then, gas turbines have been repurposed to provide inertia without generation [2]. Check out the documentary series "Guy Martin's Great British Power Trip" [3] for more national grid facts.

[1] https://www.theblackoutreport.co.uk/2023/08/09/9-august-2019... [2] https://www.nationalgrideso.com/news/deeside-power-station-b... [3] https://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-great-britis...

[ksec]

I would like to think the best way for Storage isn't a a giant battery somewhere ( although we could certainly do that with Hydro Dam ), may be something like a Tesla Powerwall that could work 20-30 years minimum, minimal to zero fire risk. All the homes could then install their own and take advantage of the cheap electricity price at night or in other hours. It would ultimately serve as the biggest buffer to any surge in energy usage.

[standeven]

Here's the storage solution project I'm working on: https://vortical.io

Flywheel storage (which is not new), but we sacrifice some efficiency and energy density so we can do it for cheap.

[mytailorisrich]

The grid is still a big bottleneck across the board, from production (can't connect wind or solar farms) to deliver (can't connect charging stations, etc).

[Blehmo]

Easy: get an EV and allow bidirectional charging; done.

My ev has 100kWh, just the bi directional is not yet working

[cm2187]

I am not even aware that any are planned at scale. I think their plan is to keep using LNG to offset.

[mytailorisrich]

Storm Pia is passing over the UK today, and it is a very windy day [1]

[1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-...

[meindnoch]

Imagine how much windier would it be, if they didn't extract that energy with wind farms.

[ttrrooppeerr]

No great loss without some gain!

[vegancap]

Was lying in bed last night listening to the wind, thinking 'I wonder how much energy that's generating', checked this morning and wasn't disappointed. If we could sort renewable energy storage out, we'd be laughing energy prices wise. We're a windy little island, after all.

[standeven]

Yes, storage is the bottleneck that not many people talk about. The transition to renewable energy is still young and already we're seeing negative spot prices. My company is working on affordable, lithium-free storage for the grid to address this.

[choeger]

Germany today (massively rainy and windy day) had a peak of over 50GW. Surprisingly we still had 2GW solar peak even today with the worst possible weather and over 9GW just two days ago.

[alamsterdam]

Ireland is generating 75% renewable today also!

https://www.eirgrid.ie/grid/real-time-system-information

[buggeryorkshire]

Not surprised as it knocked my outdoor Christmas tree down...

[tupac_speedrap]

I'm not surprised, there are wheelie bins all over the place, it's like a warzone out there.

[dnel]

the storms only ever pass on bin day, I'm seeing the pattern

[scrlk]

It's a wheelie bad situation (sorry, couldn't help myself) - got woken up at 0600 when the recycling bins lined up on my street started to topple over, scattering cans and bottles everywhere.

[fulafel]

See also: https://theconversation.com/britain-is-a-net-electricity-exp... (" Britain is a net electricity exporter for first time in 44 years ")

Seems the links to/from rest of europe are working out fairly well. Is there some web source that would show the "trade balance" on eg monthly basis?

[youngtaff]

Part of the reason we were a net export last winter was the gas pipeline’s to continental Europe were at capacity, so we were burning the LNG here and then exporting the electricity instead

Since then Germany has increases it’s own LNG capability and gas storage in Europe was filled much sooner

[speps]

You can see a live map there: https://app.electricitymaps.com/map

[louthy]

I’m not surprised, it’s like Lord of the Rings outside right now!

[Angostura]

If anyone doesn't know it - Gridwatch is fun

http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk

[fulafel]

Interesting that they too omit total import/export, like electricitymaps. And also total production, showing only total demand.

[zeristor]

Caveat: I have gleaned bits and bobs from across the web, but I do not work in the UK power industry.

I believe there might be a lot of wind power, but the UK grid doesn't yet have the capacity to transfer it, with London and the SE being a key user of power. Until then a proportion of wind power needs to be curtained, and gas power generated near the South East.

A coming link from Scotland to Norway should allow power to be exported, in addition to the England Norway link.

The main issue I believe is the Scotland to England link, a second interconnect, this time on the Eastern side of the British isles is being built.

Batteries can only soak up only so much extra wind power, and currently there isn't much call for desalination plants in Glasgow.

[bufio]

Lovely. Can we have lower bills yet?

[maccard]

If you have a smart meter, yes. My electricity rate today is 15p/kWh.

[tonyedgecombe]

No, they are going up in the new year.

[uf00lme]

As per other comments, I will likely net profit today from maxing out usage during negative pricing via octopus agile.

[swarnie]

Its already pretty cheap right?

Checking Octopus it seems to be averaging about £140 a month on my account.

[petercooper]

It's particularly impressive to me given the stormy conditions. I remember about twenty years ago when my area got a huge wind farm and they used to "turn it off" if it got a bit too windy which always seemed amusing to me.

Look further at the 'past day' stats on that page, 61% of power came from wind in the past 24 hours and 78.5% from 'zero carbon' sources overall (also including hydro and nuclear). This is fantastic progress.

[superposeur]

Great Scot! 21.81 Gigawatts!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fzuO9wHrvGg

[bryanlarsen]

On the solstice, too, when solar production will be relatively low. It's a good anecdote in the conversation about the renewable mix.

[standeven]

Wind often increases when solar energy decreases and vice versa, which is why they are deployed together when possible.