UK offshore wind prices come in 40% cheaper than gas in record auction

Re:UK offshore wind prices come in 40% cheaper than gas in r... by tialaramex on Thursday January 15, 2026 @07:46PM (#46641620)

> I suspect that the UK is already beyond the point by which additional wind is economically beneficial, but I’m not certain about that.

I don't buy it. Just before Xmas the grid managed to move about 23GW of wind and it was a record. 23GW is lots but there was peak demand at that time, about 14GW of gas was still running when they hit that record. How can it be of no benefit to expand beyond that ?

I don't expect to even start worrying about the factor that's got you scared until we have a whole day when the CCGTs aren't running.

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Re:UK offshore wind prices come in 40% cheaper than gas in r... by simplisticelk on Thursday January 15, 2026 @11:19PM (#46642965)

You very well may be correct, but it’s really not about how much it displaces at demand peaks (BESS is more likely to displace gas peaking). It matters how much it displaces over years and how often the additional output is surplus to demand. Long past uneconomical wind expansion you’d expect to still be running CCGTs over winter.

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Re:UK offshore wind prices come in 40% cheaper than gas in r... by belorn on Friday January 16, 2026 @09:05AM (#46646440)

UK is currently limited by transmission. Gas can only be displaced by wind if the energy can be transported to the location where it is being consumed.

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