Wind Energy in the UK: Progress and Future Expectations

Abstract

Renewables proved to play an important role in significantly reducing the emissions associated with electricity and the non-renewable energy supply. Wind energy as with the other renewables in the UK has the first choice option for the modern power systems. It is now competitive with conventional sources and commanded 90%. By 2020, the UK has a target to generate 15% from renewables to meet the energy demand of which 33–35 GW of installed wind capacity is to be achieved. The main drivers for wind energy developments are the societal understanding, renewable obligations, contracts for difference and other governmental policies that supported a sharp increase in the wind capacity for both onshore and offshore generation. In addition, the cost of the wind turbine technology has fallen by nearly one-third since 2009. This has reflected in an increase in the auctions held to deploy wind projects over the last 7 years, resulting in an increased number of projects that are either in operation, under construction, consented or/and planning. Investment is sharply increasing and many applications have already submitted for the coming 10 years. The country’s total capacity has reached up to date to about 14.6 GW and power generated 38,907 GWh supplied to 9.8 million homes in the UK which show a very good progress towards the EU targets. The chapter reviews all kinds of wind energy projects in the UK, their progress and expectations for the future including what will Brexit mean for the environment and Britain’s wind energy targets. Data are provided in forms of tables and charts.