By John Ingham
The Express
April 7, 2011
THE unreliability of wind power in Britain was exposed yesterday in a shock report issued by environmentalists.
Over the past two years UK wind turbines metered by the National Grid ran at just 10 per cent of capacity for more than one-third of the time.
And they ran at less than 20 per cent of their capacity for more than half the time, it was claimed. Yet the Government is committed to building thousands more taxpayer-subsidised wind turbines in the quest for greener energy.
The report, carried out by consultant Stuart Young for conservation charity the John Muir Trust, said wind power "cannot be relied on" when electricity is most needed.
It said that once a week on average the wind dropped so low that the turbines produced enough energy for "a mere 6,667 households to boil their kettles for a cup of tea".
During the four highest peak demands last year, the best wind could manage was 5.5 per cent of capacity.
There were 124 separate occasions from November 2008 till December 2010 when total generation from wind farms metered by the National Grid was less than 1.25 per cent of nominal capacity.
