Record figures for energy generated from wind power in the UK.

Thanks to Hurricane Irene, 7.2 per cent of our electricity was being produced by wind turbines on Tuesday 6th September at 11:58am.

The latest reports from the British Wind Energy Association are understandably keen to talk up the renewable source of power, but other commentators have been more interested in exposing its inefficiencies.

Britain now has over 3,500 wind turbines, but these still only account for a fraction of the total electricity we use, encouraging comment that the highly-subsidised form of energy is a waste of time and money.

To meet Britain’s EU-agreed renewables targets, we would need to build at least another 10,000 turbines by 2020 in addition to the 3,500 we already have. Figures for wind power generation are sketchy at best, with some sources saying the amount generated last year was less than 1% of the energy used, and others saying it was more like 2.7%.

Germany already has 22,000 turbines, but they generate only 15% of their capacity – a measly 6% of the nation’s energy. This means that, in the wake of their decision to close all nuclear plants by 2022, they have plans to build new coal plants to subsidise the wind farms’ intermittent supply, as well as purchasing power from France, which was ironically, generated by nuclear power stations.

Many now believe that wind power has been exposed as so inefficient and unreliable that it is not seen as a clean alternative to Coal, Oil and Gas.