It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy night. And the Grid couldn't handle it.

Apparently the National Grid paid out almost a million pounds to wind farms all over Scotland and asked them to put the brakes on all their wind turbines.

On the night of April 5th/6th, high winds across the country coupled with a huge rainfall saw wind and hydro power schemes produce so much energy that the Grid couldn't cope with it.

In an ideal world we would have "stored" the excess energy for those times when the wind doesn't blow, but battery technology isn't that advanced yet. Energy storage isn't as sexy as energy production, so it sees relatively little in the way of R&D funding.

That's why we need those Interconnectors to Norway and the European mainland. Storing our excess power in Norway is far more sensible than asking wind farms to switch off their turbines, especially in a world which is crying out for low-carbon energy.

(Incidentally, I've seen two letters in newspapers in recent weeks claiming that wind turbines in Scotland simply "don't work". I think this proves that they work all too well!)