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BWEA's 'Beaufort Scale' for wind energy

Twelve wind facts that will blow you away

1. The BWEA is the trade and professional body for the UK wind energy industry. The largest of the renewable energy trade associations, BWEA has quadrupled in size since 1997, with over 330 companies now in membership, including every offshore developer and all wind energy capacity now installed.

2. There are currently over 1100 grid-connected turbines installed in the UK producing over 767 megawatts of electricity, meeting the needs of nearly half a million households each year, enough for every home in Norfolk.

3. 2003 was the single most successful year for wind energy in the UK to date. Not only did 100 new megawatts of wind power come online, increasing electricity production from the wind by 20%, but more megawatts of wind power won planning permission than had been built in the previous 11 years combined.

4. Wind power now provides a modest 0.6% of electricity supply, a poor showing compared with Denmark's 18%, and one which places the UK firmly at the bottom of the European renewable energy league.

5. By 2010 wind power in the UK will be providing at least 8% of total electricity supply. The Renewable Obligation, introduced on 1st April 2002, requires electricity companies to source increasing proportions of their supply from renewable energy. Wind power is the best-placed technology to meet this increase in renewable demand.

6. Achieving 8% will require the installation of a 1.65MW turbine every day from now until 2010.

7. The increase from 0.6% to 8% may sound a lot but much more than this has already been done elsewhere. Germany for example in 2001 installed the equivalent of over 31 similar sized machines per week, an increase from roughly 19 every week in 2000. The German wind industry now employs 30,000 people directly and indirectly.

8. Every unit of electricity generated from a wind turbine displaces one that would otherwise be generated from fossil fuels, and thus prevents the emission of several of the greenhouse gases, including carbon and sulphur dioxides and nitrous oxide. Wind turbines in the UK currently prevent the emission of well over one and a half million tonnes of CO2 each year.

9. The Renewable Obligation will place a value on the 'greenness' of electricity which is higher than the price of power itself. Combined with the exemption of renewably-generated electricity from the Climate Change Levy, 'going green' now makes good business as well as environmental sense, saving businesses 0.43 pence per unit of electricity.

10. Meeting the Government's indicated targets for wind energy would result in the production of over 16.7 billion units of clean green electricity, sufficient to power 4 million households each year while saving the emission of over 14.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

11. The price of electricity generated from a wind turbine has fallen by a factor of 4 since the first wind farm started operating in the UK in 1991. Wind energy is now as cheap as conventional fossil fuel generation.

12. British wind is the best in Europe - it's official! The UK has 40% of the total European wind resource - a massive untapped potential, theoretically sufficient to meet the country's electricity needs 8 times over. And don't forget, wind energy can never be wasted; it is an entirely natural and renewable energy source which produces no harmful emissions or waste products.

The Beaufort scale is of course a system for estimating wind strengths without the use of instruments, based on the effects wind has on the physical environment, ranging from 0 for calm through to 12 for hurricane. Devised in 1805 by Sir Francis Beaufort, an English admiral and hydrographer, this system is still in use today. Click here to find out more about the Beaufort scale.