Renewable Energy Foundation

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Two renewable records broken on 14 September 2012

On Friday 14 September 2012 two interesting renewable records were broken.

Firstly, it was a record day for share of renewable energy in Britain's overall electricity generation with 13.6% of the total generation managed by National Grid in the day coming from a mix of hydro (1.4%), wind (10.5%) and dedicated biomass (1.7%).

In GWh the renewable energy generation was 10.6 GWh from hydro generators, 81.6 GWh from wind and 12.9 GWh from a single dedicated biomass generator at Tilbury. This gives a total 105 GWh compared with a total net generation from all generators and interconnectors for the day of 774 GWh.

The total for the day would have been even higher were it not for a further record being broken.  Friday saw the largest volume of Scottish wind generation having to be discarded in a day.  This was 5 GWh at a cost in excess of £580,000.  

The so-called, constraint payments, were made by National Grid to wind farms in Scotland to reduce output because too much electricity was being generated in Scotland - more than could be used in, or transported out of Scotland.