British wind farms drive down day-ahead wholesale energy prices by almost a third in 2025

A new analysis by the UK’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has shown that British wind farms helped limit the role of gas power plants in setting prices, cutting power prices by almost a third.

The new analysis was penned by Jess Ralston, the head of energy at the ECIU, based on the same public data sources and methodology used in the October report ‘Marginal Gains: how wind is pushing gas out of the power market and cutting costs’.

According to the original October report, Great Britain’s day-ahead wholesale prices in 2024 could have been up to 33 per cent higher had there been no large-scale wind capacity, which would have opened the door for gas generation to make up the difference.

This conclusion was subsequently reaffirmed by Ralston in an ECIU press release and subsequent LinkedIn post based on data for 2025.

This showed that the average price of electricity traded on Great Britain’s day-ahead markets last year were around £83 per megawatt-hour (MWh), but could have been as high as £121 per MWh, were it not for British windfarms limiting the role of gas power plants in setting prices.

Currently, Great Britain (as distinct from the United Kingdom, which includes Northern Ireland, but which is part of the Irish single electricity market) has over 29 gigawatts (GW) of operational wind capacity and another nearly 10 GW under construction.

Results for offshore wind in the latest Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction (AR7) were announced this week, which will add more projects to the developmental pipeline. See: Offshore wind hopes boosted as massive UK auction smashes records after years of failures

While it is important to recognise that these prices do not immediately translate to household electricity bills, the good news is that gas power plants are setting wholesale prices less of the time, according to Ralston.

The resulting saving of around £38 per MWh amounts to a price cut of 31 per cent and builds on savings of 25 per cent in 2024, part of what Ralston describes as “a longer-term trend of rising savings as Britain’s growing fleet of wind farms push gas power plants off the system.”

 “With the rollercoaster of gas prices over the past few years having hit British industry hard, and households still carrying debt from the gas crisis, this is a reminder that more renewables means more stability,” said Ralston.

“The current turmoil surrounding Venezuela contrasts with more British renewables supplying homegrown energy and even helping to supress prices by edging gas – which will increasingly need to be imported as the decades-long decline of the North Sea continues – off the system.

“Once you have a wind turbine or a solar panel, you don’t have to pay another country for the wind or sun.”

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