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Once known for having some of the cheapest electricity in Europe in the early 2000s, the United Kingdom (UK) now faces some of the highest energy prices in the developed world. Businesses pay at least 50% more for power than most European competitors and more than triple the rates in the United States.
Energy-intensive sectors have taken the hardest hit. Major facilities such as CF Fertilisers in Billingham and the Ineos refinery in Grangemouth have closed, while the steel industry is barely surviving. This winter, typical household energy costs are projected to be 44% higher than they were four years ago.
The Ukraine war triggered a sharp spike in gas prices, but the deeper issue lies in the structure of the UK energy system. The national grid is ageing and expensive to maintain, storage capacity for renewables is limited, and being an island makes it harder to import electricity from neighboring countries in times of shortage. In addition to these structural weaknesses, “policy costs” such as green levies and consumer protection schemes add further pressure to bills.
Even though more than half of the UK’s electricity now comes from renewables, the price of every unit of power is still set by gas—the most expensive source. This is because electricity is bought in half-hour auctions, and the final generator needed to meet demand (almost always a gas plant) sets the price for everyone.
Gas remains essential because it can be switched on instantly when wind or solar output drops. This “marginal pricing” system keeps the lights on, but it also means that even cheap renewable energy (RE) ends up being sold at gas-inflated prices, causing bills to soar despite the growth of clean power.
The UK’s green hurdles
The United Kingdom positioned itself as a global climate leader, promising to phase out coal, slash emissions, and reach net-zero by 2050—one of the most aggressive timelines in the world.
On September 30, 2024, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, the country’s last coal plant, was permanently shut down, ushering in a coal-free era for the UK. Just twelve years prior, coal supplied almost 40% of the UK’s electricity. By 2019, its share had collapsed to just 2%. As of October 2024, coal power has fallen to zero, completing one of the fastest phaseouts in the world.
However, at the same time, nuclear output fell to a 40-year low due to the retirement of aging reactors and delays in building new ones. This left the UK dependent on gas, which then spiked in price during the global energy crisis.
The UK had plans to reach 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind (OSW) by 2030. But in 2023, no major offshore wind projects bid in the UK’s RE auction. Developers argued that government-set prices failed to account for rising global costs, including inflation and strained supply chains, leaving both fixed and floating wind projects without support.
Another problem is that grid connection delays are stalling solar projects across the UK. As the number of installations rises, existing infrastructure struggles to handle peak demand, pushing timelines back by years. Some developers have to wait 10 to 15 years for a connection, with delays driven by limited cables and transformers, poor data on generation, and a backlog of applications.
In 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a five-year delay to the planned 2030 ban on new gas and diesel cars, citing the “unacceptable costs” such a move would impose on households. He stressed a “more pragmatic and realistic” approach, arguing that though the UK leads globally in the green transition, pushing too quickly risks eroding public support for climate policies.
Germany’s renewable strain
Daily Tribune columnist Chito Lozada wrote that Germany, once hailed as the “poster child of the RE transition”, invested €500 billion in wind and solar through its Energiewende (energy transition) campaign, aiming for 80% renewables by 2050. By 2010, the nation had become a global leader in renewable deployment, inspiring similar initiatives abroad.
However, the transition has recently backfired. Despite installing 60 GW of solar and 65 GW of wind, Germany faced rolling blackouts in 2022 to 2023, with energy prices surging 400%. The country’s dependence on Russian gas to back up intermittent renewables and an overloaded grid exposed the vulnerabilities of moving too quickly in the green transition.
The Daily Tribune’s editorial reported that experts warned Germany could risk returning to an era where daily life depends on the whims of weather if its energy transition is poorly planned.
Intermittent sources such as wind and solar now supply over half of the country’s RE, with hydro, biomass, and a small share from geothermal providing the remainder. According to the editorial, this has caused energy production to undergo “periods of massive overproduction as well as renewable power shortages due to the high variability of both sun and wind.”
The article pointed out that to maintain a stable grid, storage and backup systems would need to cover nearly the full load at all times. However, the scale required for a fully renewable system exceeds current technological capabilities, and existing battery storage remains far from sufficient without breakthroughs.
“Thus, the country that has attempted to turn its RE ambition into reality has realized the urgent need for a critical assessment of the practical feasibility of a 100-percent renewable power system, with due consideration of the required backup and storage systems,” the editorial stated.
(Also read: P400M Masbate Power Repair Highlights EC Vulnerability)
Spain’s grid struggle
Spain also stands out as a cautionary example in the RE transition, grappling with challenges that mirror those faced by Germany and the UK. Despite ambitious goals and significant investments, Spain’s rapid expansion of RE has led to grid instability and economic strain.
In April 2025, a severe blackout affected both Spain and Portugal. The incident was attributed to uncontrollable voltage surges, exacerbated by the disconnection of power plants that were unable to stabilize the grid. Experts have pointed to inadequate planning and the heavy reliance on intermittent renewable sources without sufficient backup systems as key factors contributing to the failure.
The Baker Institute for Public Policy warned that grids dominated by renewables lack vital stabilizing services such as inertia and frequency control. Conventional plants provide these through spinning turbines, while wind and solar depend on inverters that cannot steady the system during sudden shocks.
During the Iberian blackout, solar output was high, and few conventional plants were online. When the generation suddenly dropped, the grid had too little inertia to absorb the impact, triggering automatic protections and a cascading collapse.
Additionally, Spain’s solar industry faces economic challenges, with producers experiencing numerous hours of zero or negative electricity prices. This situation arises when energy supply exceeds demand, forcing producers to either pay to offload electricity or shut down plants, threatening the financial viability of RE investments.
(Also read: Visayan Electric Upgrades Cebu Grid with Looped Substations)
The takeaway for the Philippines
According to The Week, connecting wind and solar to the grid, maintaining backup power, and balancing supply add major expenses reflected in the electricity bill. In 2024 to 2025, the UK spent about £2.7 billion ($3.3 billion) on grid stabilization, including paying wind farms to shut down when the system was overloaded.
These hidden system costs are not unique to the UK. Lozada noted that globally, RE has been heavily propped up by feed-in tariffs, which are passed on to consumers through electricity bills.
In the EU, critics argue this system created stranded assets and added roughly €300 billion ($330 billion) to household costs. As a result, the EU’s 2024 Green Deal update softened its goals and reclassified gas as a “bridge fuel,” while countries like France and Sweden are turning back to nuclear to secure reliable baseload power.
Lozada also flagged the country’s weak infrastructure as a major obstacle. “The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has admitted that remote RE sites in Mindanao and Luzon can’t connect because the transmission lines are decades-old, typhoon-battered, and underfunded,” he wrote. As a result, some solar farm developers risk producing power that cannot be delivered, leaving their facilities idle due to bottlenecks.
“A slow transition is the most logical and pragmatic approach to RE until the technology catches up, which will make it a more reliable source of electricity,” stated Lozada.
Meanwhile, the Daily Tribune editorial warned that blindly abandoning coal for a rapid renewable shift could lead the Philippines into economic and energy troubles. “How then can the use of renewable energy be hailed as the way of the future when even energy security — the very thing it is supposed to ensure — is compromised?” it concluded.
Sources:
https://theweek.com/tech/why-britains-electricity-bills-are-some-of-the-highest-in-the-world
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9888
https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-uks-journey-to-a-coal-power-phase-out
https://business.inquirer.net/422289/uk-leader-sunak-delays-ban-on-new-gas-diesel-cars-by-5-years
https://tribune.net.ph/2025/10/01/slow-but-sure-shift
https://tribune.net.ph/2025/10/07/flight-of-re-fancy
https://www.ft.com/content/b155d922-288a-4bb8-b207-a9f49bb645c7