British Wind Energy Association Says UK Reaches 4GW of Installed Wind Energy

The UK has achieved a milestone in wind capacity this week, finally pushing past the 4GW of installed wind energy capacity. The break through came after three new projects were commissioned for a combined capacity of 118MW, said that British Wind Energy Association. 

The association made the announcement at the opening of their wind, tidal, and wave conference held this week in Liverpool. The BWEA announced that the last 1GW of capacity had only been installed in the last year, although the prior 3GW were installed over a period of 17 years, a testament to the increasing growth of the wind energy industry.

The three projects which will be commissioned for this month are being developed by EDF Energy Renewables, Scottish Power Renewables, and Dong Energy.  The breakdown of projects is respectively a 38MW at Longpark, 30MW at the Dun Law extension, and 173 MW at the Gunfleet Sands offshore wind facility.

BWEA chairman Adam Bruce said that these projects combined with the 9GW of projects currently being developed but have already received planning consent, will put the UK wind markets at the half way point to meeting the targest for 2020.

Although the UK is well on its way to developing large scale utility wind energy, the country still remains drastically behind some European countries such as Germany and Spain who are leading the globe in wind energy development.