Wind farms across Britain have set a second power generation record within the space of a week, producing 20,896MW of electricity on Wednesday 2 November.

National Grid ESO said the milestone was achieved during a 30-minute period around noon when wind farms accounted for 53% of Britain’s electricity.

On the same day, low-carbon sources – wind, solar, nuclear, hydro and storage – provided 70% of the country’s electricity.

It comes just seven days after a previous record was set by onshore and offshore wind projects, when 19,936MW was generated over a half-hour period.

RenewableUK chief executive Dan McGrail said: “Generating more than 20GW of electricity for the first time represents a new milestone for wind energy in Britain.

“The fact that we’ve smashed the last record within the space of a week shows that wind is consistently generating vast amounts of clean power and becoming the backbone of our modern energy system.

“This benefits hard-pressed billpayers too, because wind has become the UK’s cheapest source of new power.

“It’s also strengthening our energy security at a time when generating our own electricity from home-grown sources has become vitally important.”

The trade group noted that although the latest statistics represent a new electricity generation record, the highest percentage of electricity generated from wind in a half-hour period is 64% on 29 January this year.