Much more interesting is what UK doesn’t do with that power. Someone should post that article about curtailment problems and how that jacks up people’s power bills.
Well this is after curtailment. It’s power in the grid.
…but yes there is a problem getting the power from the farms (mainly Scottish ones) to where it could offset gas turbine generators (mainly the south). So they have to turn turbines off.
Newer farms are tending to be built in more varied locations making it less of a concentrated problem, but it’s a real thing and why there’s been lots of talk of needing new pylons.
Wind curtailment in the UK has cost consumers over £1 billion so far in 2025, primarily due to payments made to wind farms to stop generating electricity when the grid cannot handle the supply. This issue is expected to escalate, potentially reaching £8 billion annually by 2030, as the infrastructure struggles to keep up with renewable energy production.
Much more interesting is what UK doesn’t do with that power. Someone should post that article about curtailment problems and how that jacks up people’s power bills.
Well this is after curtailment. It’s power in the grid.
…but yes there is a problem getting the power from the farms (mainly Scottish ones) to where it could offset gas turbine generators (mainly the south). So they have to turn turbines off.
Newer farms are tending to be built in more varied locations making it less of a concentrated problem, but it’s a real thing and why there’s been lots of talk of needing new pylons.
Couldn’t you do that?
I don’t know which article you’re talking about.
https://octopus.energy/press/as-wasted-wind-is-set-to-hit-650m-so-far-this-year-octopus-introduces-wasted-wind-ticker-on-homepage-to-highlight-colossal-costs-of-broken-energy-system
Thank you
Thanks. 8 billion is wild. Itd be nice to have that to use to improve the grid instead.
Plenty of other examples are already up and running. Doesn’t take that much money to ask how they already solved the problem.