The UK has hit a milestone 30GW of wind generation capacity with the opening of SSE Renewables’ Viking Wind Farm on the Shetland Islands (see story) adding 443MW of capacity.

Total operational capacity of combined onshore and offshore wind in the UK now stands at 30.3GW, as tracked by RenewableUK’s EnergyPulse, and adds even more to a renewable total that provided a record 46.4 per cent of the UK’s electricity in 2023, according to the latest statistics published by the Government in July, with wind remaining our biggest source of clean power.

Combined onshore and offshore wind power generated a record 28.1 per cent of total electricity last year, whilst accounting for more than 60 per cent of electricity generated from renewable sources.

As a little bit of history: the UK’s first commercial onshore wind farm, Delabole in Cornwall, went operational in 1991, and the first offshore wind project off the coast of Blyth in the north east of England began generating in 2000. Initially, wind deployment climbed slowly to 1GW in 2005 and grew to 5GW in 2010, before expanding rapidly to 10GW in 2013 and 15GW in early 2017. Capacity has subsequently doubled in just seven years to reach the 30GW milestone.

Commenting on the milestone, RenewableUK’s executive director of policy and engagement, Ana Musat, said: “It took 26 years to install the first 15GW of wind energy in the UK, so to double that to 30GW in just seven years represents a tremendous success for the industry. As the latest record-breaking figures from the Government show, wind is the backbone of our future energy system and a key driver of our transition away from expensive and volatile fossil fuels to become a clean energy superpower.”

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