Reliable Britain: Report No. 1. What Britain's electricity would have cost on gas

What has the drive to net zero added to the cost of Britain's electricity since 2002?

Net zero added £140.3bn to Britain's electricity bills between 2002 and 2024. That is £2,286 for the average household; businesses and public bodies bore the rest. Different reasonable assumptions put the total between £120.8bn and £152.7bn. This is the electricity bill alone. On the gas-led alternative, dearer gas would also have raised gas bills for homes and industry, by £18.2bn, or £9.5bn once you allow for the extra that British gas producers would have earned. That does not change the answer.

Carbon pricing accounts for £82.9bn of it. £23.7bn of that was collected as tax; the other £59.2bn raised the power price without being collected. Readers who see carbon pricing as making the polluter pay can take it out.

Renewables cost more than they saved, except in 2012 and the gas crisis of 2021–23. They cost £147.4bn in subsidies and grid costs, and saved £100.7bn by lowering wholesale prices: a net £46.7bn.

All figures are modelled, for 2002–24, in 2024 prices.