Like many countries, the U.K. is increasingly relying on renewables for electricity. And while the shift to lower-carbon power includes some eye-grabbing projects — like the world’s largest offshore wind farm, proposed for the Dogger Bank site off England’s north coast — it’s also rewriting the playbook for other modes of power generation.
The growth of renewable power means that the owners of the world’s gas turbines have to accept some Darwinian logic: Adapt or die. The challenge is particularly acute in the U.K., where electricity production from wind, solar and hydropower installations is booming. The total installed capacity of the country’s renewables sector now exceeds that of fossil-fuel-fired generation, or power plants that burn coal, gas and oil.