OSLO (Reuters) – Wind power production in the Nordic countries hit a record high of 21.3 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday amid stormy weather in the region, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Wind turbines’ output across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland reached the new high point for the hour from 0500 GMT, according to the data.
The previous record, hit only last week, stood at 20.8 GW.
Wind speeds reached up to 40.8 metres per second in the southern Norwegian mountains on Thursday morning, the country’s meteorological institute said in a tweet.
In Sweden, the local distribution grid subsidiary of Germany’s E.ON had warned of strong winds in the area north of the capital Stockholm during the night, after a storm over the weekend uprooted trees and led to some power outages.
The recent run of new wind records is also a function of the large number of wind farms being built in the Nordics in recent years.
High wind helps to lower wholesale power prices.
The recent windy weather has helped push the region’s reference system price to below 50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) and hourly prices below 10 euros/MWh on several occasions over the past two weeks.
This compares with average prices this month so far of 96.29 euros/MWh.
(Reporting by Nora Buli; Editing by Jan Harvey)
