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Lack of Wind Energy During UK Cold Snap
Britain’s wind farms have stopped working during the cold snap due to lack of wind, it has emerged, as scientists claimed half the world’s energy could soon be from renewables. The Met Office said there has been an unusually long period of high pressure across the UK for the last couple of weeks, causing the cold snap and very little wind.
Since Boxing Day much of the country has suffered sub-zero conditions with frozen rivers and lakes and even the sea in the south of England, at Sandbanks in Dorset. In the last few days temperatures in southern England plunged as low as 17.6F (-8C). However the weather is expected to warm up over the weekend, with wind speeds also picking up. But sources in the energy industry say that the lack of wind has caused the country’s wind farms to grind to a halt when more electricity than ever is needed for heating, forcing the grid to rely on back up from fossil fuels or other renewable energy sources.
In the long term, experts fear that the intermittent nature of wind will force the UK to rely on insecure energy supplies, for example gas from Russia, and are calling for a greater energy mix including controversial nuclear and coal-fired power stations.
The Telegraph: ‘Wind energy supply dips during cold snap’
Also, an article in the Financial Times about the Russian gas crisis, which includes the telling sentence:
The EU also has a strategy of investment in wind power, which will need more gas-fired power plants to keep the lights on when the wind does not blow.
In other words, wind power does not increase our energy security.
Meanwhile, a mystery object crashed into a wind turbine:
Daily Mail: ‘Unmanned stealth bomber could have been UFO responsible for destroying wind turbine’