Marginal Greenhouse Gas Emissions Displacement of Wind Power

Currently in Great Britain, estimates of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings that arise from wind power replacing other types of generation are approximated as the average emissions of electricity generation; however, this value is known to be incorrect - it assumes that wind power replaces all different forms of generation equally (which is not the case), and also ignores the detrimental effect that balancing the fluctuating output of wind power can have on the efficiency of conventional plant. There has been considerable debate as to whether the actual emissions displacement of wind power will be higher or lower than the average emissions value. The work presented in this poster provides robust values for this emissions displacement, through a detailed marginal analysis of historical operational data from the National Grid. It demonstrates that, between November 2008 and June 2013 the emissions displacement of wind power has been consistently higher than the published average annual emissions factor, despite the significant detrimental effect that wind power has on the efficiency (and thus emissions intensity) of coal and gas-fired plant.