Wind power provided £104 billion in net benefit to UK consumers

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October 31, 2025
3 min read

Wind power provided £104 billion in net benefit to UK consumers

Investment in wind power in the UK provided a net financial benefit of over £100 billion for energy consumers between 2010 and 2023, a UCL study has found, “challenging misconceptions about the cost of the green energy transition.”

The study was published in UCL Open Environment and found that in that period, wind power lowered electricity bills by £14.2 billion and reduced the cost of natural gas by £133.3 billion. When offset by the £43.2 billion in green subsidies paid by consumers through their bills, the net result was a reduction of £104.3 billion in energy bills over the 13-year period.

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“As delegates prepare for COP30 in Brazil, the report’s conclusions re-focus attention on the UK’s green energy transition and challenge the argument that sustainability, affordability, and energy security are in conflict with each other,” UCL says. “Crucially, the study’s authors argue that investment in wind energy should be viewed as a public good whereby government support directly benefits consumers and industry.”

Addressing the financial impact of wind power on the country’s energy market, the researchers modelled the long-term Merit Order Effect (MOE), the mechanism through which, introducing cheaper renewable energy results in lower wholesale electricity prices.

Unlike past analyses which looked at only the short-term MOE, this study considered the potential cost of constructing new gas capacity, “providing a fuller picture and a more realistic reflection of how the energy market would respond over time.” Models that only looked at the short-term calculated a net benefit of just £0.9 billion.

By comparison, this study took into consideration that if the UK continued to invest in gas rather than wind over the 2010s, demand would have increased and resulted in higher prices today. But the UK actually saw an increase in wind capacity over that period, from only five terra-watt hours (TWh) to 80 TWh or 30% of the electricity generated in the country. This showed that increasing wind capacity has “pushed gas generators out of the market” and lowered prices for consumers.

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