> Britain paying highest electricity prices in the world for second year running

> Ed Miliband’s net zero targets are facing fresh scrutiny after Britain was found to be paying the highest electricity prices in the developed world.

> New data published on Tuesday showed the price paid by UK industry for power was 63pc higher than in France and 27pc higher than in Germany.

> Britain is also the second-most expensive country in the world for household electricity, with billpayers paying twice as much as those in the US.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/britain-paying-highest-e...

Yes. But these things can be orthogonal. Or actually brcause gas is expensive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkep1vx3mro

The price for wholesale electricity is set by a bidding process, with each generating company saying what it would be willing to accept to produce a unit of electricity.

Once built, the cost of generating power from renewables is very low, so these typically come in with the cheapest bid. Nuclear might come next.

Gas generators often have the highest costs, because they have to buy gas to burn, as well as paying a "carbon price" - a charge for emissions.

The wholesale cost is set by the last unit of electricity needed to meet demand from consumers. This means that even if gas only generates 1% of power at a given time, gas will still set the wholesale price.

California is a great example; highest electricity prices in the US (not counting Hawaii, which makes sense) despite significant hydro and fantastic solar capacity. In the last few years California runs 100% renewable on many days (and growing) every year.

Economics 101: prices are not set by what goods cost to create + markup. Prices are set by how much people are willing to pay.

> In the last few years California runs 100% renewable on many days (and growing) every year.

How many is "many days"? Gas is still used for at least one fifth of electricity. https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/US-CAL-CISO/5y/mont...