Every time Britain has a still, grey week in winter, something invisible happens behind our plug sockets: gas power stations fire up to keep the lights on. That gas is often imported, with prices set by volatile global markets. This is one reason why energy bills surged during the cost-of-living crisis, despite the low cost of available renewable energy.
On very windy days, we have a different problem. The grid can’t always use all the electricity our wind farms generate, so we pay them to switch off. In effect, we throw away clean energy because we have nowhere to store it.
