General electric has just supplied a wind turbine to be put up in the dogger bank region of 13mw. General electric bought the wind turbine making assets of Enron when it went out of business in 2002.

Wind turbines have been gradually getting bigger and bigger. There are several reasons for this; Bigger wind turbines are better at translating the wind into electricity, and when you get more than 100 m above the earth’s surface the wind speeds become far more reliable (this allows for better predictions of what electricity will be available when).

However a 13 megawatt wind turbine would have in the past been unthinkable. For reference a standard wind turbine is usually rated around 2 to 3 megawatts. For reference, the average electricity use of a residence in the UK has just dropped under 4mwh a year (4000kwh). 

This means that when there is enough wind to operate peak creation of electricity, this huge wind turbine will produce roughly enough electricity in an hour to keep three houses running for a full year. To put it another way this single wind turbine should produce enough electricity for 8760 British houses entire energy requirements. 

Assuming British energy requirements will continue to fall this will only get better over time. 

It has previously been calculated that the entire world could be powered many times over by wind power, assuming at least that we get better at transporting it from where it is created to where it is needed. There is obviously a need for people around the world to cut their electricity use as well, but this shows that it is actually economically viable to move towards a carbon-neutral electricity system in the world.