T - "...if Scotland produces double what it needs and England deployed a equal number of windmills per area and they were just as productive they would still fall far short of producing all the power for the separate area formerly called England." Sorry, faulty logic: English wind turbines do not blanket the country as they do in Scotland. And England covers 3X as much area as Scotland. IOW if England had the same AVERAGE turbine density as Scotland it would produce 3X as much electricity. In fact, from 2015:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/564052 ... d-turbines"SCOTLAND is set to become the most overcrowded country on earth for wind turbines, according to new research by the Sunday Express. The country now has 2,683 wind turbines capable of generating 5,115MW of electricity, although there are 282 more under construction and a further 2,202 with planning consent. Once they are all operational, Scotland will have an installed wind power capacity of 12,769MW - the sixth highest in the world behind China, the USA, Germany, Spain and India. It would also result in the world's highest density of wind power capacity, with 163MW for every 1,000km2."
Second, from Wiki: "The United Kingdom is one of the best locations for wind power in the world, and is considered to be the best in Europe. Wind power contributed 11% of UK electricity generation in 2015, and 17% in December 2015. Allowing for the costs of pollution, particularly the carbon emissions of other forms of production, onshore wind power is the cheapest form of energy in the United Kingdom. In 2016, the UK generated more electricity from wind power than from coal."
So all England need do is build more wind farms as Scotland has done. But I suspect its biggest problem isn't economics but widespread NIMBYism. Either the Scotts don't have a problem or the govt overrides such objections. According to the article some Scottish counties have very high turbine density compared to others: "Highland Council alone already has more wind power capacity than all but 24 countries in the world, with 416 turbines capable of generating 834MW. Once all those under construction or with planning consent are operational, Highland will have an incredible 1,040 turbines capable of generating up to 3,494MW - more than Japan or Holland and five times as much capacity as New Zealand."
Bottom line: looks like England could supply 100% of its needs by wind power...if it installed the turbines. In the meantime Scotland continues to expand beyond its needs. Presumably to sell to England...at a profit. And as long as the English are willing to pay a premium for imported electricity its wind farms will lag behind its potential. Despite being one of the best regions for this renewable.
If the English don't have a comparable renewable energy component as Scotland it isn't because it lacks the resource. It because they choose to not take advantage of the situation.