Talk Eco

You may know that the UK is the windiest country in Europe, so we are well placed to harness the natural power of the wind but did you know that…

There are currently 171 wind farms with an installed capacity of 2429 MW.

That is enough green electricity to power 1.3 million homes, or all of the homes in Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

If all the wind farms in the planning system were approved an extra 5 million homes would run on green power.

Of the 1972 wind turbines installed in the UK, 1823 are onshore and 149 are offshore.

Wind farms in the UK offset the release of 5.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in a year, one of the major greenhouse gases.

A typical modern turbine repays the CO2 expended in its manufacture, transport and assembly within 6-8 months.

A wind farm of 30 to 35 turbines creates 150 jobs during construction.

Delabole was the first commercial wind farm in the UK. Built in 1991, it has 10 x 400kW turbines which still power around 2200 homes.

In terms of wind capacity installed, UK ranks 6th in Europe. At 22,247MW Germany is in first place with 10 times UK installed capacity, and Spain in second place has 6 times UK capacity.

A typical turbine in the UK will generate over 4.7 million units of electricity each year, that’s enough to make 170 million cups of tea a year, to run a computer for 1620 years.

To learn more about wind power or to see a full list of statistics about the UK’s wind farms please visit BWEA website.

For a detailed map of current and proposed wind farm sites in the UK please visit here.