It’s official – statistics just released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show a massive leap in the amount of clean electricity being generated for British homes, businesses and factories by wind power.
DECC says wind energy output increased by 33% in 2012 compared to the previous year, due to the extra capacity provided by new UK wind farms going operational onshore and offshore.
The figures also show that wind power generated 5.5% of the UK’s electricity needs in 2012, up from 4% in 2011.
RenewableUK’s Deputy Chief Executive Maf Smith said:
“The official figures are getting better and better every year. Wind energy now has the capacity to power more than four and a half million British homes with clean electricity, saving more than six and a half million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. With the right level of Government support, we could be generating 20% of the UK’s electricity needs by 2020, by harnessing our naturally strong wind energy resources.
“In the long term, this is good news for all of us who have to pay electricity bills, because we’re continuing to switch from increasingly expensive imports of fossil fuels which have been driving our bills up, to low carbon home-grown renewable sources at a predictable cost which we can control – that gives us energy security for the future.
“We’re also creating thousands of new jobs in the British wind energy industry, which will be employing 76,000 of us in green-collar jobs by 2021.”
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Press release, March 01, 2013; Image: ACCIONA