Search: go

A typical onshore turbine in the UK will power over 1,000 homes each year

A typical turbine generates 4.7 million units of electricity each year, sufficient to:

- Meet the average annual electricity needs of 1,000 homes

- Make 170 million cups of tea

- Run a computer for 1,620 years

- Prevent the emission of 4,000 tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide – equivalent to taking 1,333 cars off the road.

Education and Careers

Calculations for wind energy statistics

Examines emissions reductions, electricity produced, homes equivalent, energy balance and carbon footprint

See also:
Calculating the energy in the wind
Extracting energy from the wind

 

Emissions Reductions

Every unit (kWh) of electricity produced by the wind displaces a unit of electricity which would otherwise have been produced by a power station burning fossil fuel. This is a generally accepted fact used by many organisations including Government in their environmental calculations. Wind-generated electricity does not replace electricity from nuclear power stations because these operate at 'base load', that is they will be working for the whole time that they are available.

Electricity from wind turbines replaces the output of coal and gas fired power stations as these are the most flexible plant on the system.

Nuclear plant operates at base-load, as does almost all gas plant. It is the output from coal-fired plant which is adjusted to meet the electricity demand on the system. In other words, most 'load following' is carried out by coal and gas fired plant.

BWEA is currently establishing a calculation process for CO2, SOs and Nox emission reductions.

 

References

  1. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 1994. Select Committee Briefing: Environmental Aspects of Wind Generation.
  2. Digest of UK Energy Statistics, 2005. BWEA regularly updates 'annual homes equivalent' figures based on the latest data for domestic electricity consumption divided by number of households.
  3. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, October 2006, postnote 268, Carbon footprint of electricity generation, www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn268.pdf