The UK Finds The New Energy Bargain

Reality Check: Which form of renewable energy is cheapest?

Reality Check Team, 25 October 2018 (BBC News)

“…[Data on New Energy and fossil fuel generation projects from the UK government for projects starting in 2020 shows] it will cost £63 to generate a megawatt hour of electricity using onshore wind energy…It's the cheapest renewable power source listed, in comparison with £106 for offshore wind…These figures do account for construction costs and the fact that wind and solar power are intermittent…But they don't consider costs associated with environmental factors like air quality impact…

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…[Newer data supports the government findings. It also] found that onshore wind is the cheapest form of new-build electricity generation available in the UK today…The total electricity generation in the UK stood at 336 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2017, with 29.3% generated by renewable sources of energy. This was an increase from 24.5% in 2016 [whichis driving prices down]…Over the last year, generation from wind and solar sources increased from 47.7TWh to 61.5TWh…[The current government] has recently launched an initiative to increase the UK's offshore wind power capacity…[O]ffshore wind has more than halved in price, and onshore and solar have seen similar cost reductions…” click here for more

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