Why buy the same electricity twice?
When it's really windy, we fill the grid near wind turbines with more clean energy than we need. This creates rush hour traffic on the grid, and the energy can't get to where it's needed.
As a result, we pay to make it again (often with dirty fossil fuels), as well as paying to switch the wind off.
- Improvements to the grid will help, but this is expensive and complicated too.
- Make energy cheaper where supply is strong. This makes better use of these abundant green electrons, and because there'd be less waste, bills could go down for everybody.
The Wasted Wind methodology was created by Robin Hawkes.
Robin Hawkes (@robhawkes)
I do data visualisation at Octopus Energy, where I've been since 2022. Before Octopus I created visualisations in other areas of the energy industry, as well as autonomous vehicles and smart cities.
In my free time you'll often find me working on energy-related side projects like this and my live wind energy map. I regularly post about these on X and LinkedIn.
The cost of turning down wind turbines (curtailment) and replacing that lost energy (turn-up) is calculated using detailed data from the Elexon Insights API. For curtailment, the amount of lost wind energy is measured, as well as the cost of paying wind farms to stop generation. For turn-up, the cost of buying the same amount of energy from other sources is estimated using real energy prices.
City consumption comparisons assume annual household consumption of 2,700 kWh, 2.4 people per household, and an average day across the year. City population is at least as large as the amount compared.