Scotland's Wind Turbines Could Power Almost Every Household for a Month

Power For (Almost) Every Household

Wind is never in short supply in Scotland, which makes the county an ideal place to construct a lot of wind turbines. Now, WeatherEnergy has reported that wind turbines generated 792,717 MWh of electricity to the National Grid in October, up by more than 25 percent on the same month last year.

That amount, according to WWF Scotland, is enough to supply energy to 87 percent of Scottish households. The total national electric consumption for October was 2,080,065 MWh when you add in businesses and industry, which means Scottish wind power was able to meet 38 percent of the country's total energy needs for that month.

This is not the first time that Scotland has generated a remarkable amount of wind energy. An earlier report by WeatherEnergy showed how Scotland's wind turbines generated 1,125,545 MWh of electricity for the month of January 2016. Scotland's total energy consumption for January was 2,354,117 MWh, which means that the wind turbines contributed to 48 percent of all Scotland's energy needs and were able to provide energy to all Scottish households for 22 out of the 31 days in January.

A Global Trend

Scotland is just one of the countries that is increasing its capacity for renewable energy. Countries like Denmark, the United States, and even China are embracing the use of renewable energy for electricity generation. We're seeing innovations in wind power across the globe, with stronger turbines, turbines in unlikely places, and even turbines that can generate electricity and water.

Renewables have not yet replaced fossil fuels as a primary source of energy and may not be able to do so for some time yet. However, current trends like the increase of new capacity for renewable energy and the steady decline of coal shows how nearer we are to a fossil fuel-free future.