I’m glad we use renewables more, but I want it to start reducing my energy bill.
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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When the wind blows it brings prices down now, often to sub-5p per kWh. I find myself wishing for wind to get a cheap day.
Why is it that alternate energies or alternate foods always cost exactly what the former energies or foods costs, for the citizens? Is "cheaper alternative" a never-ending scam?
The only ones that seem to not be like that are hydroelectric and geothermal, since they're baseload. Which is why they're the two I advocate for the loudest -- why not use stuff that works?
...because you're on a price plan that doesn't get cheaper on windy days.
The wind generated energy is super cheap, but maintaining balance on the network becomes more expensive. You pay for energy and network.
For processed foods it is a scam I think. Combined with subsidies and lower scale production. A veggie burger is objectively a lot cheaper to produce than a meat burger, but the meat is often cheaper still for the consumer...
New tech is almost always more expensive as it is being developed. It becomes more efficient over time as it scales up and as improvements are figured out. You only see the new tech becoming available at the retail level once it's cost has come down to around the same as that of existing solutions (unless there are non-market forces, like governmental policy at play). So the new stuff comes in at the same price, but then has the potential to get cheaper to produce. Of course, unlesss there is an abundance of supply, the retail user won't see a cost reduction (unless there are non-market forces, like governmental policy at play) because the business using the new tech will charge what the market will bear to maximize profits. And the market cost is already established with the old tech.
interesting article, but they should fix the title, you don't say "i drove 90 mph on a single day," we don't know if referring to peak, constant or average speed, you could say i drove 400 miles on a single day, or i reached a top speed 90 mph instead. similar with power and energy
It's over a 30 minute period.
It's important because it shows our online capacity continues to grow. We're not decommissioning old turbines faster the bringing new ones online.
i didn't say it wasn't important, maybe you meant to reply to the other comment, i was referring to semantics
Fair enough. I was on the defensive because of every other comment.
Much more interesting than peak power at a certain moment is energy generation over a meaningful period.
Over the last 12months.
- wind 30%
- solar 10%
- nuclear 13%
- gas 30%
Much more interesting is what UK doesn't do with that power. Someone should post that article about curtailment problems and how that jacks up people's power bills.
Well this is after curtailment. It's power in the grid.
...but yes there is a problem getting the power from the farms (mainly Scottish ones) to where it could offset gas turbine generators (mainly the south). So they have to turn turbines off.
Newer farms are tending to be built in more varied locations making it less of a concentrated problem, but it's a real thing and why there's been lots of talk of needing new pylons.
Couldn't you do that?
I don't know which article you're talking about.
Wind curtailment in the UK has cost consumers over £1 billion so far in 2025, primarily due to payments made to wind farms to stop generating electricity when the grid cannot handle the supply. This issue is expected to escalate, potentially reaching £8 billion annually by 2030, as the infrastructure struggles to keep up with renewable energy production.
Thanks. 8 billion is wild. Itd be nice to have that to use to improve the grid instead.
Thank you