UK wind industry joins energy elite

A snowy hill on the outskirts of Stirling in Scotland is the scene of a significant milestone of achievement for the UK wind industry when Secretary of State Alistair Darling switched on the turbine which pushed the UK into position as one of the top seven players in the global wind market.

The generation and export to the grid of electricity from the Braes of Doune wind farm places brings the UK’s total wind power portfolio to two gigawatts, or 2,000 megawatts, generating sufficient electricity to meet the needs of 1.1 million households – corresponding to a third of London’s homes, or almost half the homes in Scotland – and will prevent the emission of over 4 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking 1.5 million cars off the road.
The commissioning of the UK’s second gigawatt of installed capacity – only 20 months after commissioning its first and a far cry from the 14 years it took for the industry to achieve it’s first – firmly positions the wind industry as a key player in the UK energy market and the UK wind industry as a significant part of a global wind market worth