It is unheard of but it has happened. The UK has actually produced more wind power than the system could handle this past week.
Last Wednesday’s Bloomberg report stated that a few wind farms in Scotland were asked to reduce output by 25 megawatts, or about as much as two average US households use in a year. The finance pub says UK grids are having trouble keeping up with all the power their ocean and land wind farms generate. Also, the country does not have the ability to store large amounts of it in batteries.
Moreover, windmills can also shut down automatically to protect the machines from damage if they spin too fast. Bloomberg says the optimal wind speed is 33 mph. If the speed is increased, it will damage the engine.
This can be seen as a good sign as on Wednesday the UK reached an energy production peak that covered more than half of Britain’s power needs, electric vehicles are becoming more accessible and as a species, we seem at least somewhat determined to understand and harness nuclear power.
