Britain has saved around £7 million a day since the start of the current conflict in the Middle East, as domestic solar and wind power capacity has removed the need to import gas, the price of which has risen dramatically since the start of the war.
This is the most important conclusion from Ember’s latest report. The report, ‘Clean energy strengthens Britain against gas price shocks’, published today assesses how Britain’s greater use of domestic renewable energy to meet electricity demand – and reduced reliance on importing fossil fuels from abroad, which are affected by global supply chain disruptions such as the war in the Middle East – has affected energy prices in Britain.
The driving force behind these savings is the large volume of new sustainable energy capacity that has been installed in recent years. In the wake of the 2021 fossil fuel crisis, Britain accelerated the deployment of new clean energy capacity, exceeding cumulative capacity of 40 GW in 2022, and installing 28% of the country’s total cumulative operational renewable energy capacity since 2021.
Britain exceeded the cumulative capacity of 40 GW in 2022 and today has almost 55 GW. Image: Ember.
In the five years since the last energy crisis, Britain has added 7.7 GW of new wind capacity, in addition to 7.6 GW of solar. Ember notes that of the 137 projects built since the last energy crisis, 106 were solar projects, by far the most of any technology type. These trends in capacity additions are shown in the chart above.
Ember also expects this trend to continue in the coming years, with 51 GW of new renewable energy capacity approved for deployment, of which 20.8 GW will be solar. The government also allocated a record capacity of 4.9 GW in the latest auction round – AR7 – and energy secretary Ed Miliband has already outlined this plans to accelerate the deployment of solar energy “further and faster.” to further protect Britain from disruptions in global energy prices.
Solar and wind energy generation has increased by 52% since 2021
Since the start of the current conflict in the Middle East on February 28, renewable energy has played a greater role in the UK’s energy mix. In the month after the start of the conflict, wind and solar energy generation was 52% higher than in the same period in 2021, while the contribution of gas to the energy mix fell by 39% over the same period.
In total, wind and solar energy have met 40% of Britain’s electricity demand since the start of the conflict, almost double the demand for gas, which accounted for 23%.
As a result, the overall impact of these more expensive prices on the British economy has diminished, while gas prices have risen in the days following the start of the conflict. Ember reports that the cost of generating electricity with gas in Britain has almost doubled, from £53.58/MWh on February 28 to £104.64/MWh within a month, on March 20.
This change was also very rapid, with gas prices reaching £95.67/MWh on March 4, an increase of more than £30/MWh in less than a week. Ember concludes that if UK gas consumption had not fallen and remained at the same level as in 2021, these higher gas prices would have meant Britain would be spending a further £7 million a day on importing gas.
