[monsecchris]

Gas can produce enormous amounts of power at short notice 100% of the time and is cheaper per watt, nobody builds a 5MW twin cycle gas turbine power plant. There is a reason it sets the price at market. The CFDs are locked in at persistently high prices for decades. All these actions will increase costs to customers.

There is a reason our energy costs are the highest in the world, it is because our politicians persistently make choices like the ones described in this article.

[laurencerowe]

These prices are a lot closer. You can play around with the assumptions in the government's LCOE calculator spreadsheet linked from the article. Removing the carbon price and using pre-wind load factor of 75% gives a LCOE of £67/MWh, which is similar in cost to solar at £65/MWh and onshore wind at £72/MWh, albeit lower than offshore wind at £91/MWh.

Assuming future costs of gas will go down is risky too. UK North Sea production is falling and recovery costs are likely to increase as we are left with only more marginal deposits.

[tialaramex]

The UK hasn't produced enough gas in the North Sea to actually run the country for a very long time, maybe ever. Anybody who sells you a dream about British gas for British people isn't telling you the truth and it doesn't matter whether they are lying or incompetent, you can't trust anything they say.

America, Russia and a handful of other places could do this. It's probably a terrible idea, but it is technically possible. However Britain is not one of those places.

[Havoc]

>is cheaper per watt

It isn't though? Even at high assumed load factor for gas wind beats it on LCOE £/MWh. [0] And not by a small margin either.

The only edge gas has is qualitative not price - it is dispatchable nature...and the cost of energy storage is in freefall. The trendlines here are not subtle.

>There is a reason it sets the price at market.

Yeah the sooner we get rid of ungodly expensive on demand peaker gas doing exactly that price setting the better for us all.

[0] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696697d19d9b9...

[dyauspitr]

It’s is categorically not cheaper per watt. Solar and wind are roughly £50/MWh and gas is £125/MWh. Not just LCOE but this is taking into account build cost. It’s insanely more expensive. What kind of low quality shill are you?

[yladiz]

Is it cheaper factoring in externalities?

[phil21]

Yes, because the primary externality is an unreliable power grid. That externality is being priced into the unreliable sources of production.

Any other externality is a rounding error against an unreliable electric grid.

[7thpower]

Two can play the externalities game.

[stinkbeetle]

Externalities such as destroying your manufacturing base and eroding living standards and middle-class wealth by having 4x higher electricity costs than a country like China which emits 2x more CO2 per capita?

[hshdhdhj4444]

Why don’t you disprove this instead of throwing random unproven anecdotes.

> This means they will help cut consumer bills, according to multiple analysts.