Power prices plunge as Storm Eunice causes some of the highest-EVER output from wind turbines

Storm Eunice has caused power prices to plunge after record-breaking gusts created some of the highest-ever output from wind turbines on Friday.

Day-ahead UK power dropped by 11 per cent to £140 per megawatt-hour (MWh) following the surge in wholesale gas prices in recent months, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper also reported that wind power has significantly outpaced gas over the past week with turbine energy generation averaging 11.48 gigawatts, well above the 7.2GW for gas.

The Telegraph added that prices in Germany dropped by more than two-thirds to their lowest level this year, and that output from wind farms in the country is expected to double by tomorrow.

It comes as Storm Eunice continues to wreak havoc on much of the UK today, tearing roofs of homes, knocking spires off churches and even tearing up the 02 Arena in London.   

Day-ahead UK power dropped by 11 per cent to £140 per megawatt-hour (MWh) following the surge in wholesale gas prices in recent months, according to the Daily Telegraph. (Stock image)

The top speed of 122mph at Needles on the Isle of Wight, recorded on Friday, is provisionally the highest gust ever in England and means Storm Eunice is now worse than the 1987 Great Storm when gusts peaked at 115mph in West Sussex. 

Millions of Britons were urged to stay at home today, and the storm claimed its first victim when a man in his early 60s was killed by a falling tree in County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland while out working to clear trees. 

A second person, a motorist, is believed to have been killed when a large tree fell and crushed a vehicle in the market town of Alton, Hampshire, this afternoon.

Two further victims have since been announced, a woman in her 30s in Haringey, north London, and a man in his 50s in Netherton, Merseyside. 

Today’s red warnings ended at 12pm in the South West and 3pm in the South East, but forecasters continue to be concerned over ‘flying debris resulting in danger to life’ as well as ‘roofs blown off and power lines brought down’. 

An amber warning for gusts up to 80mph covers the whole of England until 9pm tonight having started at 5am.  

Damage to the roof of the O2 Arena – known as the Millennium Dome when it opened in 2000 – in South East London today

A trampoline is seen flying mid air during Storm Eunice in Builth Wells in Wales on Friday 

Fallen scaffolding on a vehicle in North End Road in Golders Green, London, during Storm Eunice on Friday 

Picture shows the missing brickwork from the rooftops of three houses torn off during Storm Eunice, on Kilburn Park Road in north west London

The strong gusts are good news for the country’s wind power farms, at least, which rely on turbines powered by wind to create sustainable energy – helping the country in its bid to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

The UK has the largest offshore wind farm in the world, located off the coast of Yorkshire, which was one of many areas under a red alert for wind today.  

According to the National Grid, 2020 was the ‘greenest year on record’ for Britain, with record high levels of wind energy generation. 

Electricity generation from wind power in the UK increased by 715 per cent from 2009 to 2020 – while turnover from wind energy was nearly £6 billion in 2019.