Scotland's wind farms produce twice as much energy as needed to power its homes

T he Paris Agreement set a limit to the average increase in global temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius but things are not looking good. The need to turn to sustainable energy is increasing with each day and it looks like Scotland is taking huge strides in this field. This year, in the first half of 2019, Scotland generated enough of energy from wind to supply all its homes two times over. The wind turbines generated 9.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity, more than enough energy to supply to 4.47 million homes. To put these numbers in perspective, the entire country of Scotland has only 2.6 million homes. This amount was generated in the months of January to June. [caption id=“attachment_6755061” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Representational image. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The month of March had the highest production of 2,194,981 MWh. Robin Parker, Climate and Energy Policy Manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in a press release, “These are amazing figures, Scotland’s wind energy revolution is clearly continuing to power ahead. Up and down the country, we are all benefiting from cleaner energy and so is the climate. These figures show harnessing Scotland’s plentiful onshore wind potential can provide clean green electricity for millions of homes across not only Scotland but England as well.” The UK, in May, also set a record of going two weeks without using coal-powered plants. Alternative sources such as more efficient gas turbines, renewables, and nuclear power helped make this happen.