Electricity generation from wind power exceeded 50% of Britain's mix for the first time on Saturday in the wake of Storm Bella, according to energy specialist Drax.
In a tweet late Monday, the British energy group added that the previous record was 50% on August 21.
Storm Bella swept across part of the UK on Sunday and then into northern and central France, where tens of thousands of homes were without electricity, with wind gusts of up to 143 km / h over the coastal regions.
the United Kingdom, which will host the major UN climate conference (COP 26) in Glasgow in 2021, is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. Offshore wind power is at the heart of the “
green
”
strategy
of the Boris Johnson's Conservative government.
He pledged to make the UK the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind power, capable of supplying energy to all UK homes with output quadruple to 40 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, the equivalent of more than 40 nuclear reactors.
Meanwhile, UK power grid operator National Grid tweeted that on Christmas Day, for the first time, coal's share of all UK electricity generated was zero, compared to 20% in 2009 and another 1.8% last year.
The pandemic and the containment measures and restrictions on activity have contributed to lowering the demand for electricity in the country and increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix.