TESUP Atlas and Magnum wind turbines in a snowy garden at dusk beside a house with lit windows, with the headline: why winter belongs to wind
October 27, 2026

The clocks went back on Sunday 25 October, and the evenings went dark. In London, sunset jumped from 17:49 on Saturday to 16:47 on Sunday. For solar panels, this is the start of the lean months. For a household wind turbine, it is the start of the best ones.

The great winter swap

The Met Office's long-term averages for the UK tell the story in two lines. Sunshine falls from 173 hours in July to just 47 hours in January. Over the same months, the average wind speed rises from 7.9 to 10.8 knots, or from about 4 to 5.5 metres per second. As the sun fades, the wind picks up.

Chart of UK monthly averages: sunshine hours peak in summer and fall to 47 hours in January, while average wind speed is lowest in July and highest in January
UK monthly averages, 1991 to 2020: sunshine and wind move in opposite directions.

A little more wind, a lot more energy

Wind speed and wind energy are not the same thing. The energy in the wind rises with the cube of its speed, so a small step up in speed makes a big difference. January's average wind is about 37% faster than July's, but it carries roughly 2.6 times the energy. In the same months, the sun shines about 3.7 times less.

Comparison of July and January: sunshine is 3.7 times lower in January, while the energy in the wind is about 2.6 times higher
July against January: the sun drops, the energy in the wind more than doubles.

Two halves of the year

Split the year in two and the pattern is even clearer. October to March brings only 30% of the year's sunshine: 421 of 1,403 hours. By our estimate from the monthly averages, it brings nearly two-thirds of the year's wind energy. Government figures for small renewable installations show the same rhythm: wind does its best work in autumn and winter, solar in spring and summer.

Year split into two halves: April to September has 70% of the sunshine, October to March has about two-thirds of the wind energy
Summer belongs to the sun, winter belongs to the wind.

The night shift

Winter evenings are when a home needs light and heat, and by then the sun has already set. The wind does not keep office hours. It blows after dark, through long nights and grey days. Atlas with Low-Wind blades starts turning at just 2 metres per second, well below the January average, so it keeps working through the calmer days too.

TESUP Magnum horizontal wind turbine spinning at night beside a snowy house with warm lit windows
Magnum after dark: the wind does not keep office hours.

Sun and wind, one team

This is why wind and solar work so well together. Our flexible solar panels lead from April to September, and Atlas and Magnum lead from October to March. Together they spread your home's own power across the whole year, instead of leaving you short just when the evenings are longest.

Close-up of a TESUP Atlas vertical wind turbine in the snow, with the LED screen, MC4 inputs and sensor port on its body
Atlas in the snow: the dark months are its best months.

Sunshine and wind: Met Office UK climate averages, 1991 to 2020 (wind at 10 m). Seasonal pattern: UK government Feed-in Tariff load factor analysis. Sunset times for London on 24 and 25 October 2026. Turbine figures: TESUP product data. Wind energy share estimated from monthly mean wind speeds.

Make the dark months count

Atlas catches wind from any direction, with a blade set for every site. Magnum is made for open, steady wind.

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