Why UK wind power should not exceed 10 GW

Abstract

Britain's wind power reached 1 GW in June this year, making it the eighth largest national installation in the world. Over the next 5 years a further 6 GW is likely to be built at a cost of £7 billion in the rush to meet the Government's target of 10% renewable energy by 2010. The plan is for wind energy to deliver three-quarters of the target but that, as this paper explains, would actually require 12 GW, meaning the target will not be met. Furthermore, experience in Denmark and Germany shows that the UK will find it impractical to manage much over 10 GW of unpredictable wind power without major new storage schemes or inter-connectors.The paper concludes that while wind power should be exploited as fully as possible, it must not be at the expense of renewing existing firm generating capacity.