Wind farms in Great Britain generated a record amount of electricity this year, thanks to windy weather and an increase in the number of turbines, which mitigated the impact of rising natural gas prices, Bloomberg reports.

Wind power will be a critical factor in how Europe manages the energy crisis, which has already cost more than $1 trillion. Higher wind speeds will ease the need to flare more gas after Russia cut supplies to Europe.

Building a large number of wind farms will allow Great Britain to reduce the amount of gas used and meet its climate objectives, according to Agerpres.

Most turbines in the UK are offshore, where winds are stronger and more persistent. So far this year, UK wind farms have produced nearly 74 TWh, enough to power more than 19 million homes, data from the National Energy Transport Company shows. The previous record of 68 TWH was set in 2020.

The record production was made possible by the increase in the number of large wind farms. In 2023, the trend will continue, in the summer the Seagreen project, of 1.1 GWh, realized by SSE Plc and TotalEnergies SE, will become operational.

New records are set to be set in the coming years, with the UK closing in on the target of reaching 50 GWh of offshore wind capacity by the end of the decade, triple the current level.

Even with increased capacities, there will be periods when the wind will not blow, as happened last week, when the amount of gas used to obtain electricity was increased. But over time wind energy will reduce demand for fossil fuels.