According to Carbon Brief analysis, record wind and solar generation has saved the UK from needing £5.9bn of gas imports since the start of the Hormuz crisis. Clean-power output is up 14% year-on-year, and wind and solar now account for 41% of UK electricity, compared with 25% from gas. This has cut gas-fired electricity by nearly 10% year-on-year.
The savings are tied to surging wholesale gas prices. Since March, gas has averaged 134p per therm, nearly four times the 2019 level, and in September reached 189p per therm, the highest since the 2022 energy crisis. The avoided imports would have required more than 100 additional LNG tanker deliveries. In September alone, record wind and solar output of nearly 10 TWh saved £1.3bn.
High gas prices are hitting household gas bills, which are set to rise 33% from April under the price cap, about £200 per year, according to thinktank Nesta. Electricity bills, by contrast, have risen only 4%. Nesta's Andrew Sissons said the link between electricity and gas prices has "already begun to break". Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh and prime minister Andy Burnham both pointed to exposure to global fossil-fuel markets as the cause of high bills, with Burnham calling for faster decoupling of electricity prices from international gas.