UK report: Wind won’t work without storage 

Credit: impactlab.net

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As if we didn’t know…’A large increase in energy storage will be critical to ensuring a clean power system by 2030′ – ELN summary. Two problems there: it’s unaffordable and impractical. Using words like ‘must’ and ‘critical’ is just foot-stamping, leading nowhere. Where would all the storage come from in that timescale, or any timescale for that matter, and how would the vast cost be covered? Not going to happen as storage with grid-scale capacity doesn’t exist anyway, which leaves the original intermittency problem out in the open with no viable solutions. Some more transmission lines will be strung up over the countryside on massive pylons, and some local battery ‘farms’ will appear, but that’s about it. Gas will have to fill most of the gaps, as now.
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The UK must significantly expand energy storage to achieve its clean power system target by 2030, as a tenth of wind-generated electricity is currently wasted, says Energy Live News.

A report by Drax and Imperial College London highlights that last year, wind power became the UK’s largest electricity source (31%), surpassing fossil fuels for the first time in 140 years.

However, 8.3 TWh of wind energy—enough to power two million homes—was lost due to grid congestion, costing consumers nearly £400 million.

Investing in long-duration energy storage (LDES) and battery energy storage systems (BESS), alongside grid improvements, could store surplus wind power and release it when needed, reducing reliance on gas during low-wind periods.

Without urgent investment and policy support, the country risks wasting substantial clean energy.
. . .
”The rapid and continued growth of wind power gives us grounds for optimism on the journey towards clean energy, but that growth presents its own very real and different challenges” says Dr Iain Staffell of Imperial College London, the lead author of the report.

“Last year we saw a 17% reduction in emissions compared to 2023 but with more wind comes more intermittency. This was evident throughout the winter of 2024 and into 2025, with three separate periods of cold, calm weather – known as ‘dunkelflaute’ – exposing Britain’s reliance on costly imported energy and drawing down the nation’s gas storage to ‘concerningly low’ levels.
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Wasted wind

The curtailment of wind energy – where turbines are shut down when there is no capacity to transport their power [Talkshop comment – or supply exceeds demand at any time] – is rising at an unsustainable rate.

In just one year, curtailment doubled from 5.5% to over 10%, largely due to Scotland’s wind farms producing more energy than the grid can carry south to demand centres in England.

Full article here.
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Image credit: impactlab.net