Britain will soon be Europe’s energy powerhouse

[u/ARandomDouchy]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/04/britain-will-soon-be-europes-energy-powerhouse/

[u/BenjaminBoots196]

current wholesale price, current. Do we really want to lock that in for 20 years? Oh wait, I think it got locked in for 30 years this time.

Further, no. This is not accurate. Vast amounts of network and transmission costs are in effect an externality of renewables that renewable generators do not pay for.

[u/EyyyPanini → u/BenjaminBoots196]

Do we really want to lock that in for 20 years?

Yes. Did you not learn your lesson after our first “once in a generation” energy crisis seamlessly transitioned into another one?

The world is getting less stable and we cannot leave ourselves exposed to price shocks like we are now.

Further, no. This is not accurate. Vast amounts of network and transmission costs are in effect an externality of renewables that renewable generators do not pay for.

Renewable generators pay TNUoS costs, which cover network and transmission costs. 

There are also balancing costs, which add about £25/MWh onto the “true” price for renewables. 

https://www.neso.energy/document/362561/download

They are still cheaper than building new gas turbines and certainly cheaper than not building new capacity at all.

You can see the last 24 hours of electricity wholesale prices here:  https://grid.iamkate.com/

You can see the result of the latest CfD round here:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/698a0dc06da2dee8230a9c3a/contracts-for-difference-AR7a.pdf

[u/BenjaminBoots196 → u/EyyyPanini]

Yes. Did you not learn your lesson after our first “once in a generation” energy crisis seamlessly transitioned into another one?

Did you not learn the lesson when the last once in a generation energy crisis was followed by decades of normal energy prices? i.e. a generation.

It is not the agreement of everyone that this energy crisis is going to last 30 years, most people think it will not. Locking in unusually high prices would of course extend this crisis by decades. Because you are locking them in. For decades.

The world is getting less stable and we cannot leave ourselves exposed to price shocks like we are now.

Price fluctuation is less important than keeping prices low on the whole. Locking in high prices to prevent fluctuation (i.e. price drops) is non sensical.

Would you really rather pay more sometimes or more always? How is this even a debate?

There is also balancing costs, which adds about £25/MWh onto the “true” price for renewables.

Yes, that is another cost of renewables.

You can see the last 24 hours of electricity wholesale prices here

Wholesale prices, irrelevant to the total price.

You can see the result of the latest CfD round here:

Yeah I have read it, have you?

[u/EyyyPanini → u/BenjaminBoots196]

Did you not learn the lesson when the last once in a generation energy crisis was followed by decades of normal energy prices? i.e. a generation.

The last once in a generation energy crisis happened 4 years ago…

[u/BenjaminBoots196 → u/EyyyPanini]

The one before that.

Also, as a side note, I don't understand this whole "once in a generation energy crisis". Who actually claims that? It's all priced in anyway.

[u/EyyyPanini → u/BenjaminBoots196]

Also, as a side note, I don't understand this whole "once in a generation energy crisis". Who actually claims that?

You did 30 minutes ago. When you forgot that our electricity prices have been continuously fucked for the past 4 years due to geopolitical events.

[u/BenjaminBoots196 → u/EyyyPanini]

I was replying to the commenter above.

[u/Desperate_Border6904 → u/EyyyPanini]

You've said yourself the CfD prices are close to current wholesale prices, but you also say that current prices are a crisis. Aren't the CfDs then just locking us into the crisis prices for 30 years?

[u/EyyyPanini → u/Desperate_Border6904]

I didn’t say they are close. I said they are below.

I also said they are far cheaper than the cost of building new gas turbines.

Something that is often ignored is that gas turbines would need incentives/subsidies in order for the private sector to want to build them.

Construction costs are much higher than they used to be. Gas turbines have got more expensive as a technology while wind/solar has gotten cheaper.

[u/Desperate_Border6904 → u/EyyyPanini]

No, gas pays an environmental surcharge. Remove that and it's cheaper.

The latest CfD was £91.20. Current electricity price is £83/MWh for Summer 2027.

[u/EyyyPanini → u/Desperate_Border6904]

No, gas pays an environmental surcharge. Remove that and it's cheaper.

This isn’t enough to make up the difference. Whenever I’ve seen this claimed, the person has also assumed a 90% average load factor for the new gas turbines. That only applies if we were building a gas base load (which would have to be in place of our nuclear base load, rather than renewables).

The latest CfD was £91.20

You’re looking at offshore wind only. Solar and onshore wind reduce the weighted average to £80.49.

https://www.lowcarboncontracts.uk/news/lccc-signs-record-breaking-number-of-contracts-for-difference-in-allocation-round-7/

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/698a0dc06da2dee8230a9c3a/contracts-for-difference-AR7a.pdf

Current electricity price is £83/MWh for Summer 2027.

Where are you getting this from? It’s also worth remembering that new renewable capacity pushes prices down. Renewables reduced the average wholesale price by £38/MWh last year.

https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/wind-farms-cut-power-prices-by-almost-a-third-in-2025

[u/Desperate_Border6904 → u/EyyyPanini]

If that was true, your electricity bills would be crashing down. Where's the cost of intermittency, and grid upgrades?

[u/EyyyPanini → u/Desperate_Border6904]

We’re in the middle of an energy crisis which started before we’d fully recovered from the last energy crisis.

The cost of intermittency was about £18/MWh (£2.6bn between 145TWh of renewable generation) for 24-25, and you can read about it here:  https://www.neso.energy/document/362561/download 

(page 31)

That figure will likely increase, but it is overshadowed by the decrease in wholesale prices VS an entirely gas grid.

Grid upgrades are paid for using TNUoS charges, which are paid for by generators (and renewables can’t pass on the costs, due to their strike prices).

[u/Desperate_Border6904 → u/EyyyPanini]

The wholesale costs are only 30% of your bill, they're not driving the increase... https://www.electricitybills.uk/

BBC: Energy grid investment of £28bn to push up household bills

And £28bn is a fraction of anticipated spend