The energy market itself is flawed not renewables - Yorkshire Post Letters

With so much conflicting information regarding our energy bills, it was refreshing to see Robert Peston’s recent analysis on ITV finally debunking the myth that wind and solar power are driving up our costs.

For too long, renewables have been a convenient scapegoat for high prices. However, as Peston’s reporting made clear, the real issue lies in a ‘marginal pricing’ system that is frankly outdated.

Currently, the price of all electricity in the UK is almost always pegged to the price of natural gas, the most expensive fuel used to meet demand.

Even when we produce large amounts of cheap, homegrown wind and solar energy, consumers are too often forced to pay a ‘gas price’ for that electricity.

The data shows a near-perfect correlation between the spike in wholesale gas prices and the rise in our household bills.

If wind and solar were the problem, we would have seen costs rise independently of gas; instead, we are seeing the opposite.

In fact, many renewable projects under ‘Contracts for Difference’ have actually been returning money to the grid during these price spikes, acting as a buffer rather than a burden.

It is time we stop blaming the solutions and start addressing the root cause: our over-reliance on volatile international gas markets.

To lower bills permanently, we need to decouple electricity prices from gas and lean further into the ‘home-grown’ clean energy that Peston correctly identified as our best path to energy security.