Energy Bills: Spain Fixed It — Why Is Britain Still Waiting?

HAS it been done before? It’s a refrain I’m used to hearing, whenever proposing something new – like green energy, electric cars, diamonds from the sky – I have quite a list. People tend to think like this: if it was easy someone would already have done it – that’s illogical.

By definition someone, somewhere always does something for the first time, before others see it and like the idea – and do the same. And then it’s a thing.

Europe has the same problem we do, this absurd link is in their markets too – have one of those countries broken the link? No, not yet. At least not ‘properly’.

Spain however has shown the benefits of leaving the link behind – by diluting its impact, reducing the number of times that gas sets the energy system price for the wind and sun. The benefits have been considerable and like the rain have fallen mainly on the plain.

Energy prices in Spain over the last few years have gone from being amongst the highest in Europe to amongst the lowest. They achieved this with an explosion of green energy deployment over the last few years – far more than in any other European country – twice that of Germany.

This is Labour’s current plan – wait until green energy squeezes gas off the grid. And while it might work – it more likely won’t. Because the forecasts of DESNZ themselves show gas still setting the price 30% of the time in 2030 – that’s more than it sets the price right now in Spain.

The worst aspect of this approach though is not that it won’t completely work – it’s the delay. Five years will cost hard pressed Britons and the whole nation simply a shed load of money – higher bills, higher inflation, higher borrowing costs, higher cost of living – for no good reason.