Comparison of costs for offshore wind and natural gas fired power stations – plus the share price performance of energy trust companies operating in the heavily subsidised “renewables” sector.
Offshore wind costs 4 times more than natural gas to build and is NINE TIMES more expensive to produce.
PETER HALLIGAN
Highlighting the ignorance and corruption in the UK energy sector?
The “ transition” to decarbonise the UK to meet unachievable, ludicrous ad completely arbitrary “net Zero” targets has come with a huge (and on-going) price tag.
Using Brave AI, we have these UK winds farm construction costs:
“he total cost to build large offshore wind farms in the UK varies significantly based on project specifics and the time of construction.
For example, the London Array, one of the largest offshore wind farms, had a construction cost of $3.5 billion.
The Hornsea One offshore wind farm, commissioned in 2020, had a reported build cost exceeding £2 billion.
The Beatrice extension, commissioned in 2019, had a build cost of £2,600 million. The Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm, commissioned in 2015, had a build cost of over £2,000 million.
The Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm, commissioned in 2012, had a build cost of £1,500 million.
The Dudgeon offshore wind farm, commissioned in 2017, had a build cost of £1,500 million.
Gunfleet Sands 1 & 2 offshore wind farm, commissioned in 2010, had a build cost of £300 million. The Barrow offshore wind farm, commissioned in 2006, had a build cost of £123 million.
These wind farms cost a combined 11 billion pounds, at least.
Let’s take a closer look at the “London Array” wind farm.
“The London Array, a 630 MW offshore wind farm located 20 km off the Kent coast in the Outer Thames Estuary, has a nameplate capacity of 630 MW generated by 175 Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines, each rated at 3.6 MW.
It produces enough electricity to power approximately 584,000 UK homes annually and displaces around 900,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year.
The “London Array” Can supply power for 584,000 homes from 630 MW of wind power– impressive right? Let’s compare that to a natural gas-fired power station.
Using typical umbers for the US:
- “A 500 MW natural gas plant was estimated to cost $250 million for the plant itself, with an additional $250 million for the pipeline, equating to about $0.50 per watt ($500/kW).
- A 500 MW gas-fired power station can supply electricity to approximately 360,000 homes annually, based on an average U.S. household electricity consumption of 900 kWh per month.
A 630 MW wind farm, costing £3.5 billion can supply 584,000 homes
Cost/home for wind = around 6,000 pounds:
A 500 MW gas-fired power station costing 0.5 billion pounds can supply 360,000 homes.
Cost/home for natural gas = around £1,370 pounds.
Wind costs more than QUADRUPLE natural gas to construct – and is unreliable.
Of course the costs to buy each source of power need to be reflected and the UK treasury wonks have done everything in their “power” to favour “wind for the next few decades via Cfd auctions.
“For offshore wind farms, the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) has decreased substantially in recent years. As of 2024, the LCOE for offshore wind is estimated at £44 per megawatt hour (MWh), which is 60% cheaper to build and operate than closed-cycle gas turbines, which have an LCOE of £114/MWh.
60% cheaper – sounds like a outright lie – and it is.
This Is manipulation of the price for natural gas which has returned to close to pe-Ukrain war lvels, despite the gas-lighting of politicians saying the opposite.
However, the strike prices in Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions, which represent the guaranteed price for electricity, have risen. In 2025, the maximum strike price for offshore wind was set at £113/MWh, up from £102/MWh in 2024. For floating offshore wind, which is a newer technology, the maximum strike price is £271/MWh, reflecting higher development and deployment costs.
£271/MWH for offshore wind.
For he US, from Brave AI:
“The price of natural gas varies significantly by region and market. As of November 20, 2025, the spot price for natural gas in the United States ranged from $3.15 per million Btu in the Northwest to $4.72 per million Btu in New England, which translates to approximately $32.30 to $48.10 per MWh, depending on the region.
Call it $40/MWH = around £31/MWH – compared to the guaranteed price the UK Treasury has committed to of £271MWH for the next ten years or so.
Wind costs NINE TIMES natural gas. per MWH of electricity.
There are listed UK shares that operate I this “environment.
From here:
More clouds gather over renewable energy trusts – is there any hope for the sector?
“It is regrettable that many managers were paid fees based on a percentage of NAV rather than performance. This became increasingly controversial once shares traded far below NAV.
In the past year, many trusts have belatedly shifted to levying fees on a 50/50 mix of NAV and market value (or in UKW’s case, entirely on market value). Dealings with managers are becoming a common point of contention.
Take Aquila European Renewables (LSE: AERI), which has agreed to sell assets to another fund advised by Aquila at a large discount to the current NAV, says Nicholls. How can the same manager assign two different values to the same assets?
Up 250% between September and \October followed by a drop of 20% since- quite the roller coaster and associated price-rigging potential!
Or take a plan by Bluefield Solar Income Fund (LSE: BSIF) to merge with its manager, saying this would make to easier to invest in new projects.
Yikes! – down by almost 30% in a month – would have been a great short in August (who knew???)
This article (Comparison of costs for offshore wind and natural gas fired power stations – plus the share price performance of energy trust companies operating in the heavily subsidised “renewables” sector.) was created and published by Peter Halligan and is republished here under “Fair Use”
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