Countering Net Zero Myths
You will hear claims that Net Zero is the cause of higher electricity prices; that the lights won’t stay on during windless winter days; or that it will cost more than we can possibly afford.
None of which is true. We’ll show you why.
Why are energy prices currently so high in the UK?
UK’s reserves of fossil fuels are dwindling, but any we do produce will be sold on international markets to the highest bidder. Renewables in 2024 were over half of our electricity production, while fossil fuel’s share of the power sector has fallen to 32%, most of which was gas.
Why is UK electricity so expensive if renewables are so cheap?
It’s a great question and once again, gas is the villain
Every half hour, the price of electricity is set by the most expensive unit delivering power to the grid. The power exchange accepts bids in price order, from lowest to highest, until demand is met, in what is known as the ‘merit order’: sources of electricity with the lowest marginal cost of generation (typically renewables) are the first bids to be accepted, and sources such as gas-fired power stations are the last. Until this system is reformed, the UK’s energy prices will remain high.
To slay another myth, the price of electricity is not due to huge subsidies given preferentially to renewables. In 2024, fossil fuels received 11 times more in subsidies than renewables.
We also burn a lot of fossil fuels in our homes and our cars, unaware of the health risks this poses. By moving to heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs) we can benefit from clean electricity, and a much more efficient use of energy.
Can we keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?
The UK has the largest pumped storage hydroelectric facility in Europe, Dinorwig in Wales, that was built to deal with sudden drops in power generation, like a nuclear power plant going off grid, and there are plans for more such facilities.
The UK is also rolling out a lot of battery storage, and these have the benefit of being able to be both large and small to support the network at local, regional and national levels. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) prevented a black out in October 2024 following a sudden fault with an electricity interconnector between the UK and Norway.
Far from renewables infrastructure causing a blackout, it prevented it.
As the infrastructure scales up, additional storage will be added, to deal with rare extended periods of poor sunlight and low wind. The Royal Society has provided recommendations on how to handle such extreme episodes.
Cars that require electricity to charge up, can also discharge electricity back to the grid when needed to help balance supply and demand. This is an example of so called ‘flexibility’. With the combination of storage, flexibility and intelligent management of the grid, we do not need to be worried about the lights going out.
Won’t the path to net zero in 2050 be unaffordable?
Considering the capital costs, the Government estimates of the full life-time costs of renewable generation (wind or solar), per unit of energy produced, is about 1/3rd of that for gas turbine generation.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) have said:
We estimate that the net costs of Net Zero will be around 0.2% of UK GDP per year on average in our pathway, with investment upfront leading to net savings during the Seventh Carbon Budget period. Much of this investment is expected to come from the private sector.
Government’s Net Zero Strategy estimates the UK will need a total of up to £60 billion per year in low-carbon investment by the late 2020s and 2030s, but that 90% of this will come from the private sectors (so up to £6 billion from the public sector and £54 billion from the private sector).
To give you an idea of the tax payer cost of net zero a year (£6 billion is the CCC estimate), it is less than what the country spends on fizzy drinks a year (about £10 billion).
Do we have a responsibility to act?
The UK ought to be making its contribution to reducing carbon emissions, to try to reduce the impacts of global warming that are now very apparent. One must ask, is ignoring these impacts affordable?
People say “but we are only 1% of global emissions”, although we are currently about 4.4% of cumulative (historic) emissions. We also ignore the benefits of being a first mover and developing the capabilities to exploit renewables, and then to export that technology to developing countries.
Since renewables are already the cheapest form of energy, the question is why would you want to keep burning fossil fuels which cost more, pollute the environment and threaten our collective security?
The issue is that people are being told the lie that we must make a choice
between the real and urgent cost of living concerns and the need to reach net zero. This is a false choice.
The reality is that we should address both concerns.
There are many items on the UK’s spending inventory that far, far exceed the costs of reaching net zero.
Getting to net zero requires several things - from Government, from businesses / industry, from communities and from individual householders / citizens. It is perfectly achievable, as the Climate Change Committee has laid out. We just need to stop listening to the naysayers, stuck in the last century, and get on with it.
By 2050 we’ll look back and ask ourselves, what took us so long?
A slightly longer version of this blog, complete with Notes and References is available here: net zero myths (fully referenced)