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Our son and DIL did that in the cabin he made on the 2acres they have veg and planting fruit and nut trees on. Seven years until they got a bricks and mortar mortgage together and now they just weekend and BBQ there whilst tending it.
They will run courses in self sufficiency in the future possibly residential.

Light winds, cloudy skies and very sustained cold temps meant we were offered two saver sessions this week (unusual in same week) 5:30 - 6:30 Monday and 5:00 - 6:00 on Tuesday, I assume in anticipation of the grid struggling as home time looms

Well todays winds should help a bit. I just walk 400 yds down our road and from the promenade with my binoculars, I look at the massive wind farm in Morecambe Bay to see if the props are turning. Of course I don't bother in higher winds as invariably they are switched off.

Yeah, that is a bit of a weakness with wind (and solar, come to that). They have to design wind farms and solar plants based on annual averages, as it's impossible to predict daily amounts.

As a result, wind farms have to be big enough to produce a useful amount most of the time, so on days when there's plenty of wind they produce more than we can use so many of the turbine feather their blades as the power isn't needed. At the moment we're getting very nearly half the nation's electricity from wind, and there's no point spinning turbines to make power we can't use. Because of the sourcing strategy to keep renewables, fossil, and nuclear balanced we can't turn the nukes down and we have to keep a couple of CCGTs ticking over just in case the wind drops unexpectedly.

It's not generally that the turbines can't cope with high wind speeds, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) requires most of today’s wind turbines must be built to withstand sustained winds of 112 mph and peak 3-second gusts of 156 mph (known as standard IEC 61400-01). Wind speed today in Morecambe Bay is around 40 to 50mph, so no concerns in that regard.

Not quite Tim in 2024 28.1% of our power was produced by wind.

grid.iamkate.com shows the split of renewables etc

By 'at the moment', I meant "right now, today." Currently at 46% from wind.

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

Tim,

Thanks for that, what I find disappointing in all of this, is when we do have such spare capacity when the wind blows and the sun shines, nobody thought to turn it into stored energy whether batteries or hydrogen. I know batteries are an expensive option, but stored energy such as hydrogen, would seem to make sense. If you can't use it, either domestically or exported, then store it ,I'm sure there is a ready market for green hydrogen.

There were pilot plants on Shetland decades ago using excess turbine output to produce hydrogen .... not sure what (if anything) came of it ... on one my US road trips I stopped by a huge solar farm in New Mexico ... chatted to a couple of guys cleaning the panels (the new 'painting the Forth Bridge' I guess 🙂) who said excess output was turned to hydrogen on site then used to power jet turbine generators during the evenings to stretch their input to the grid beyong the 'sunny bit' ... makes far more sense than batteries to me.

K

Also-blooming-lutely. I'd have thought there would be a clear business case for hydrogen generation. Maybe now that JCB have got their hydrogen engine approved the demand will ramp up and justify further investment for someone. It's underway though, the roadmap specifies 2GW capacity by end of 2025, with 10GW by 2030

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hydrogen-investor-roadmap-leading-the-way-to-net-zero

https://hydrogen-uk.org/hydrogen-in-the-uk/the-hydrogen-story/production/

There are battery arrays being installed next to solar farms, eg https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-energy/heckington-fen-solar-park.