Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time

Re:Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time by ZeroGravitas on Thursday May 11, 2023 @11:22AM (#35903481)

Yes it does. A big gas plant is say about 44% efficient (i.e. 56% lost as heat) so 10% of that electricity getting lost in wires takes you down to 40% of the original input energy.

Heat pumps don't qualify for EU Renewable heat incentives if they get less than 2.5 SFP (COP averaged over the year's seasons).

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Re:Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time by tialaramex on Thursday May 11, 2023 @11:39AM (#35903752)

You're possibly thinking of an Open Cycle gas turbine, where we burn gas, it spins the turbine, and the hot exhaust is lost energy. The UK has a negligible amount of this in electricity production and obviously with higher fuel prices there's ever less reason to use that small capacity. The 30GW or so gas turbine electricity in the UK is Combined Cycle, so the exhaust heat runs a secondary steam turbine bringing them up past 50% efficiency.

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