The report Analysis of UK Wind Generation is the result of analysis of wind farm output in Scotland over a 26-month period from November 2008 to December 2010 and used data from the Balancing Mechanism Reporting System.

The report claims to have also found, after the test period, that at 3am on March 28 this year Scotland’s entire output from a capacity of 3226MW was just 9MW.

However, only days later at 11.40am on March 31 also recorded wind output at 2618MW, the highest recorded by the report.

The report, produced by Stuart Young Consulting, for the John Muir Trust focused on Scotland’s wind industry.

The trust, which is against wind turbines as it aims to preserve rural environments as they are, found all the wind turbines in Scotland linked to the National Grid mustered less than 20MW of energy.

Researchers looked at a two-year period studying metered wind farms in the UK, finding wind power consistently generated ‘far less energy’ than wind proponents claim.

Author of the report, Stuart Young, said: “It was a surprise to find out just how disappointingly wind turbines perform in a supposedly wind-ridden country like Scotland.

“Based on the data, for one third of the time wind output is less than 10% of capacity, compared to the 30% that is commonly claimed.

“The intermittent nature of wind also gives rise to low wind coinciding with high energy demand. Sadly, wind power is not what it’s cracked up to be and cannot contribute greatly to energy security in the UK.”

Luke Walsh

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