Wind Drought in the UK

Britain has gone nine days with almost no produced wind energy pushing up day-ahead power prices to the highest level for the time of year for at least a decade, as Bloomberg reports. Weather forecasts expect these conditions to last for another two weeks while the weather stays warm and windless.

But there‘s no need to be afraid of a blackout, because power demand is traditionalley low in June. Wind generated ca. 4.3 percent of the U.K.’s electricity while coal output has even dropped near zero. Instead gas and nuclear power have provided the energy with shares of 54 percent and 25 percent respectively, according to data from National Grid.

U.K. turbines can produce about as much power as 12 nuclear reactors when conditions are right.