New record for UK wind energy

WIND energy across Great Britain hit a new record on Wednesday, producing enough electricity for more than 23 million homes across the country.

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(BIRCHALL/PA WIRE)

Solar and wind also combined to squeeze more expensive gas-fired generation to just 2.3% of the power mix, figures from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) show.

The record comes as the Government announced a £64million grant to back the development of Port Talbot, in Wales, as the first port in the Celtic Sea to support floating offshore wind which can harness even more renewable power.

The Neso figures show that between 1.30pm and 2pm on Wednesday, wind generation hit 23,880 megawatts (MW) of electricity, beating the previous record of 23,825MW set on December 5 2025.

Slightly earlier at midday wind and solar power combined to produce 34 gigawatts (GW) of power, squeezing gas generation to just over a gigawatt, or 1,358MW - the lowest since April 2024.

At the time of the record, more than half of Britain’s electricity (53.5) was coming from wind power, a fifth came from solar, 10% from nuclear, 9.6% from trading over interconnector with other European countries, 2.4% from biomass, 2.3% from gas, 1.5% from other sources and 0.4% from hydro, Neso said.