Will the cost of electricity and gas ever come back down again.

But they refused point blank to do anything about Nuclear, even Hinkley was proposed for under the Labour Govt.

Then when they did start Hinkley having delayed it for years, they jumped in with the Chinese and an extremely expensive min price.

Tories did increase renewables a lot

Honestly I want people in power to look at best options and do them

But that is exactly what they are doing. However you missed out the bit where today makes sense.

Because the people in power are choosing the best options for themselves (and chums). If you aren't on that bus ... well, sorry.

Not unless we get serious about nuclear power, no....

We won’t be reliant on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels. We won’t be subjected to such fluctuating costs and frequent price increases. We won’t be vulnerable to wars in foreign countries. We’ll be pumping fewer noxious gases into the atmosphere (so we’ll see health improvements, especially in young people), and we’ll be paying a lot less for our energy.

Unlikely to come down much now.

Honestly I want people in power to look at best options and do them - and get power prices down so our industry isn't being crippled and more and more of the population doesn't fall into fuel poverty.

TBH suspect we need some tech improvement on electrical storage options so we can use all the generated wind power - I know research is happening.

I'd also like government run schemes to have better outcomes than the insulating one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w965gz8zgo
According to the National Audit Office (NAO) 98% of homes that had external wall insulation installed under the schemes set up by the previous government have problems that will lead to damp and mould if left unaddressed.
Nearly a third, or 29%, of the homes that were given internal insulation also need fixing, it said.

This government and the last haven't dealt with the issue of high energy costs - I suspect in winter months the worry over heating costs and waiting to turn heating on is playing very much into the depressing narrative around the UK when large swaths of the population are starting to just feel fucked off with everything.

True. Twenty years ago, it could be finished now.

I regret I have but one upvote to give you.

If we’d spent the last few decades building nuclear we wouldn’t have to choose between net zero or growth/affordable heating.

We'd also have the cheapest electricity in Europe - because we'd sell it to them.

The wider issue is that if Europe had continued with nuclear, rather than listening to non scientists, there the Ukraine war would have had much less economic impact.

Petrol prices reached £2 litre 5 years ago.

@MayaPinion I think a few wrong turns in the environmental movement have done a lot of damage to the net zero cause. Anti-nuclear and degrowth in particular.

That Green leader whose name escapes me now who has been opposing nuclear projects for 20 years now, by arguing that they’ll take 20 years to deliver and we need action now. If we’d spent the last few decades building nuclear we wouldn’t have to choose between net zero or growth/affordable heating. Give the public those options and you are setting net zero up to fail.

Of course the greenest tech is nuclear power. Always has been. When 1 tonne of U235 (with some twiddling) can give you tens of thousands of tonnes of coal (or cubic kilometres of gas) energy.

If only there was a way to turn it into electricity ?

Yes and no. High energy prices don’t attract significant new supply becuase of regulation. That’s central planning.

The wholesale price is set by a mechanism determined (almost always) by the gas price. That’s central planning.

A signifiant portion of the energy price is taxes and net zero levies. That’s (arguably) central planning.

The idea is long term renewables will be much cheaper - but that's been a promise for a long time now.

It's now likely it will at earliest be 2030 - we may see some price decrease and 2035 before bill are cheaper - though there is nothing guaranteeing any of that and it may well end up always being 10 years away from getting cheaper.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkep1vx3mroIf the UK has more renewable energy, why aren't bills coming down?

It is starting to be a real concern now affording to heat the house - plus other annoyances - washing machine cycles more efficient than ever but take three hours when ideally have to be in house. It remind me of the early 2000 energy efficient light bulbs that were supposed to last 15-20 years and never did and took so much longer to get any decent light from them.

I like green tech - I want to reduce emission - but constant depay at using heating we have - worrying our eldery relatives may cut back on their heating affecting their health - gets very annoying.

Thank you for correcting me

Many countries look to the UK / Europe for their leadership, and net zero is a positive economic opportunity, with the potential to deliver large amounts of good quality jobs. We were leading in innovation but then under Cameron’s leadership, the government cut renewables subsidies. This led to redundancies in the solar sector in particular.

The conservatives were very much in bed with the oil and gas industry at the time. Had they continued to support renewables, as a nation today, our energy network would be more resilient and our personal bills would be lower. We’d be less reliant on the actions of foreign governments.

Manufacturing isn’t helped by high energy prices, but if businesses can afford to invest in renewables, they can go a long way towards offsetting the costs.

The main constraint is our poorly maintained and no longer fit for purpose energy grid. If one was to set up a new factory running on mains power, the grid typically requires upgrading in order to make sufficient supply possible, usually at the business’s own expense. And UK businesses are often not be able to export excess energy generated by the factory and make additional income by selling it on to another user.

So if there’s a choice between setting up in the UK vs somewhere with better infrastructure, businesses have gone elsewhere. There is this perception that businesses are responsive to only tax, but it isn’t true. Most businesses, and especially light / heavy industry, need solid infrastructure. Power, water, broadband, transport links. Successive governments in the UK have neglected to maintain / invest and instead have privatised. Although there’s a lot I don’t like about the current Labour government, their attention to our national energy supply is a positive thing.

Renewables are used more and more, and they cost less, but the price of electricity is set by the gas giants. Yes we have the highest energy prices in Europe but it's NOT due to the cost of clean energy.

Reform and the Tories would love us to believe that net zero is too expensive. It's a lie.

Greenpeace is campaigning on this issue right now:

https://action.greenpeace.org.uk/stand-up-to-gas-companies?source=LG&subsource=ECCLPLPELG06HC&utm_source=offline&utm_medium=Local+Group&utm_campaign=Gas+Rip-Off+Petition+[PMA]++PE

You what now?

Plus it really is the question I’d like to know the answer to.

What is the overall change if the U.K. do net zero and others do not.

I truly believe No this is our lot sadly

You are asking the wrong question.

The real question is how does the world not achieving that shift it ?

How much does the UK going to net zero shift that?

I’m sure I’d read that in order to have private companies interested in building nuclear power stations the government promises them a guaranteed £/kWh when they’re finally generating and that was around 50p.

That's correct.
And no, prices of fuel will never ever go down.
The UK is becoming quite a difficult place to live now.
Kids are going through a broken education system whilst GCSE exams are harder. I mean does anyone get the irony? Our kids are receiving a poorer education through secondary school, worse now than ever before in modern times, and then after 5 years of a shit education they are made to sit exams that are much harder now than they were years ago when their education was better. If they do manage to pass exams and get to university, they are now saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt from the tremendous costs incurred to study for a degree these days. I mean how did that even happen? How did we go from free higher education to forcing kids to take on high levels of debt for their education? Then they graduate and struggle to find employment. No longer is a degree an automatic entry in to a good job. They face an unobtainable housing market for first time buyers. They can't save for a deposit whilst renting because rents are so sky high there's no money left over to save. And if they do get lucky enough to have their own home, rented or bought, the cost of heating those homes is crippling. Along with the crippling cost of buying healthy food to eat.
And meanwhile the population just complies. Goes along with all this. Doesn't do anything to object. Because most of us are sleepwalking through life trying to block out the stresses and strains of modern life, and trying to earn enough money to pay for a half decent standard of living.
I am 49.
I felt so hopeful, optimistic and bright about my future when I left uni at 21. I'm now drained and exhausted trying to make ends meet due to the ever spiralling cost of living in our country that's cold 7 months of the year, despite being an experienced professional in a senior position at work.
If I was 21 now, I'd feel bleak about my future.
And we wonder why there's a poor mental health epidemic amongst our young people.
I've gone off topic, I realise. But basically, no, the gas and electric companies are not going to reduce their charges no matter what plans the government put in place, and nor are the supermarkets or the companies who sell us petrol.
It's worse than depressing.

I mean there will always be creative destruction. As new industries (the future) come along, the past dies off. We just needed to have supported and retrained the coal workers.

The UK still has 300 years of coal under it.

You feel free to get it out and flog it to the world and see what happens.