Where are we with
Green Energy?
It might surprise you to know that on
one Friday in May last year, solar power
briefly eclipsed the UK’s eight nuclear
power stations when the grid went
without coal for an entire day for the
first time, and the dirty fuel is now
regularly absent from power supply for
hours at a time.
These milestones are having tangible
effects. Solar cuts power demand for
National Grid, reducing prices, while
wind power also lowers prices. That led
to another first last week, when high
wind output pushed down the
wholesale price and resulted in negative
power prices, which means some
conventional power plants had to pay
household suppliers like British Gas to
take their electricity.
gas plants, face the same fate in the
UK?
This chart show the most recent
breakdown of energy used in the UK.
Is this the beginning of the
end for fossil fuel and
Nuclear energy?
“This has surprised people,” said John
Feddersen, chief executive of analysts
Aurora Energy Research, referring to
the speed at which negative prices had
arrived in the UK.
In Germany, lower power prices driven
by the country’s green energy boom
have wiped billions off the share prices
of energy giants E.ON and RWE. But
will the likes of EDF and British Gas
owner Centrica, which own nuclear and
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