For those in the direct firing line of recent storms, notably Storm Eleanor, it may have been "an ill wind that blows nobody any good". But the amount of wind energy generated in Europe between Christmas and the new year reached record levels, according to Wind Europe, which represents the wind industry sector in the European Union.

And on Wednesday there was a new record for the generation of wind energy in Europe, it confirmed , a total of 2,128 Gigawatt hours. It was also a daily record in Germany (925 GWh) and France (218 GWh). Wind provided 60 per cent of Germany's electricity.

Between Christmas and New Year's Day, wind energy delivered on average 20 per cent of Europe's electricity. For Ireland over the same period the average was 43 per cent (which is not a record). Ireland generated 27 per cent of its power needs from wind for the whole of last year.