Discussion
Analysis: Record wind and solar saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026
FridayoLeary: We have some of the highest electricity prices in the world. The politicians obsess over net-zero at the expense of dealing with the issues affecting most people.
cjrp: What if a happy byproduct of pushing for net zero is more investment in renewables, and decoupling the electricity price from gas?
FridayoLeary: That would be wonderful. But that hasn't happened yet, so i'll point out that whatever our current energy strategy is, it's failing miserably and wrecking the economy. For some reason other countries seem to have it figured out much better, so forgive me for not falling over in excitement over the fact that some war in the middle east is costing us a billion less then it might have.
Synaesthesia: When I was young they talked about a green revolution. Now with low solar panel costs, as well as batteries and inverters we really are living in a green revolution.
adds68: Europe seems to be responding well since the Ukraine war, the picture now is a lot more positive than in 2022. The UK has postionined itself well, even without the mass uptake of local generation/storage in it's domestic market.
jl6: Electricity prices in the UK are painful, and galling when set by the price of gas, but it’s worth remembering that this model and all this expense has bought a major asset that will only become more important and strategic.The next milestones to hit are:* A 10x increase in generation capacity* A 100x increase in storage capacity* A 1000x increase in seasonal storage capacity* Electrification of heating* Electrification of synfuels and synthetic chemical feedstocksFull energy sovereignty is achievable within 10 years at wartime-spending levels. Probably 30 years otherwise.Rehabilitation of nuclear is almost certainly required for the transition and a very good hedge / backstop regardless.
pjc50: Yeah, we're (UK) only just at the "occasionally cheap 100% renewables" state, and it's maddeningly slow progress. But it seems like a lot of things are suddenly coming online, like battery storage, and the Scotland-England grid upgrade will happen in the next few years. https://eandt.theiet.org/2026/04/02/ps12bn-plan-upgrade-scot...
edent: I'm in the UK and am currently being paid to use electricity.My energy provider uses a tracker tariff which can change every half hour (it does have a maximum cap to prevent the issues seen in Texas). Prices are currently negative, so every kWh I use right now means the electricity company pays me.Nuclear promised energy which was "too cheap to meter". But solar actually delivered.
jonatron: Batteries are getting affordable too - Fogstar do a 16kWh battery for around £2000. Plus, grid scale iron-air batteries sound promising.
sefrost: Does this cancel out the high energy prices people in the UK have been paying for the past decade+? Part of the reason the bills are high is because they subsidise the installation of renewable generation.
te_chris: Yes. Obviously it does.
te_chris: Honestly: jog on.You can see the transition happening. Right now.
ahhhhnoooo: If you had a big enough battery, could you sell electricity back to the grid later? Get paid to charge the battery, get paid to discharge the battery?It seems silly, but actually... it's driving useful behavior I suppose. Then again, maybe a good government would notice this and just fast track grid storage rather than distribute that work to all the citizens.
cjrp: Yes, I believe some EVs allow this too.
modo_mario: I don't think that would ever commonly be viable or at least not for a long time. EV's are a lot more than batteries and are proportionally stupidly expensive. If the electricity net arbitrage was worth the degradation of the battery then .... companies would do it themselves and just build the batteries for cheaper at scale.
edent: It is commercially viable. A UK energy company already has a Vehicle to Grid tariff.https://octopus.energy/power-pack/See also https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/case-study-uk-electric...
vrganj: Sounds like that was a good idea, then? Not sure why you perceive this as some sort of gotcha or an axe to grind.Yes, building infrastructure costs money. Where's the problem?
edent: Yes. I have a 4.8kWh battery which is slurping up electrons. It charges either from our solar panels or from cheap grid electricity.It discharges when prices are high. So it'll mostly go into my oven tonight. If export prices are high, it can also sell back.Very roughly, we sell about 16% of our stored electricity - the rest is used by our home.See https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/02/30-months-to-3mwh-some-more...
jmyeet: I couldn't disagree more. I'm going to point to Gary Stevenson [1] for why. He could probably get to the point faster but here's the core premise: Europe responded to the energy shocks since 2020 by transferring the better part of a trillion euros to energy companies in the US and the Middle East, particularly for LNG.Imagine where Europe might be if half a trillion euros was spent on renewables.The core problem as he describes it is that European governments don't own these providers so it's a wealth transfer from taxpayers to the ultra-wealthy.Back in the pandemic, Spain was one of the few countries that tackled the inflation shock in a better way with a windfall profits tax. Interestingly, Europe is talking about doing that now [2]. That would be smarter.Energy prices disproportionately hurt the poor [3]. If the government owned or part-owned the energy (like Norway does) then you could offset that without burning cash to stick your head in the sand for a little bit longer.[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi265I48MdI[2]: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/04/europe-energy-windfall-profi...[3]: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2023/rising-household...
blitzar: > We have some of the highest electricity prices in the world.Current price −£24.86/MWh (yes you get paid to use it)
pjc50: Octopus fixed tariff day rates are currently 33.15 p/kWh, or £332/MWh, which is a better representative number for what people are actually paying.But timeshift seems to be increasingly important.
blitzar: 24.67 pence per kWh, the Energy price cap (fixed till 30 June 2026) is a better representative number for what people are actually paying.If you fixed at 33p, sucks to be you, my electricity has been free to negative all day.
fhn: So everything should be cheaper right...RIGHT?
heyitsmedotjayb: UK is legally required to set the price of electricity to whichever generator has the highest cost - which is natural gas. Its called marginal cost pricing.
toomuchtodo: Are there any efforts to fix this?
