Scotland Wasted Enough Wind Power to Run London All Year

Imagine generating enough clean electricity to power London for an entire year, then having to throw it away because your wires can't handle it. That's exactly what happened in Great Britain last year.

A new report reveals that 12.3 terawatt hours of renewable energy was curtailed, or turned off, across Great Britain and Ireland in 2025. Most of this wasted power came from wind farms in Scotland that generated more electricity than the aging grid could transport south to where people needed it.

Scotland bore the brunt of this renewable energy traffic jam. Generators there had to switch off over 10 terawatt hours of clean power, enough to run every Scottish home for a year. Northern Scotland alone wasted 8.8 terawatt hours because transmission lines couldn't move the electricity to cities and towns.

The numbers tell a frustrating story. Only 61% of the wind power that could have been generated in Northern Scotland actually made it to homes and businesses. The rest vanished into thin air while people paid for electricity from other sources.

Ireland faced similar challenges. The island curtailed 2.1 terawatt hours, enough to power all homes in County Dublin for 12 months. Northern Ireland had to turn off 24% of all available wind energy. Solar curtailment in the Republic of Ireland jumped four times higher than the previous year.

The Bright Side

This waste highlights a surprising problem: Great Britain and Ireland are actually getting really good at generating renewable energy. The issue isn't production anymore. It's getting that clean power from where it's made to where it's needed.

Smart solutions are already emerging. A recent policy paper suggests offering energy price discounts to data centers that set up shop in Scotland, right where the excess wind power is. This could solve two problems at once by creating local demand that soaks up the surplus energy without straining the grid.

The wasted electricity in Great Britain alone could have powered every data center in the country throughout 2025. Moving some of these energy-hungry facilities north could put that clean power to work instead of watching it disappear.

Energy analyst Fintan Devenney points to the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan as the key to fixing these bottlenecks. The plan aims to coordinate where renewable generators get built, where energy-hungry businesses should locate, and which grid infrastructure needs upgrading first.

The government's goal of meeting 95% of annual demand with renewable electricity by 2030 is within reach, but only if the wires can keep up with the windmills.