Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables • Hacker News Board

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#311

Post by teamonkey » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 8:43 PM UTC

rlpb wrote: post #268

teamonkey wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but here’s the thing: you don’t have a monopoly over your potato farming method. Lots of new farms are built, and the more that do, the more the average price of a potato drops. Your expected return starts to drop. Yours - and everyone else’s - profit margins get squeezed. Investors begin to refuse to build new potato farms because a return on their investment gets worse whenever anyone decides to build a new fa…

> Investors begin to refuse to build new potato farms because a return on their investment gets worse whenever anyone decides to build a new farm. If they all refuse, then they're leaving money on the table. One investor could invest in 10% production only, and that would be very lucrative. It would be exactly my low cost to produce potato scenario. In practice, they don't all refuse, or all invest. The market finds…

> This takes time, though. If we want things to go quicker, then we need to guarantee return on investment for longer, which is exactly what the government does by guaranteeing prices to renewable energy producers.

Yes exactly. The incentives to renewables producers exist to ensure accelerated growth. This may mean we are paying more for renewables in the short term (though no more than fossil fuels) but the investment should pay dividends in future.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#312

Post by account42 » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 11:38 AM UTC

danatkinson wrote: post #308

djhworld wrote: post #109

I'm on a electricity tariff where the per kWh unit price changes every 30 minutes, you're basically being charged at market rate or thereabouts, the prices for the next 28 hours are announced at 4pm every day. Generally the prices betwen 4pm-7pm are expensive and the rest of the time it's cheaper - although with current world events things have gotten a little spicy lately. On really windy days you definitely get to…

Agile tariffs really only make sense if you have batteries. That way you can ride out the peaks by running off power generated in the troughs.

But if batteries are economical then agile tariffs don't make sense for the providers.

Re: Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables

#313

Post by account42 » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 11:40 AM UTC

roryirvine wrote: post #164

djhworld wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explained above, I WFH, single (no kids) and have an EV - but I don't use the car for commute etc so I can be choosy about when I charge the car and take advantage of the ultra cheap periods. Fixed price advantage is you use power whenever you want. Your average unit rate is just the price on the tariff. Predictable and safe. Agile price changes every 30 minutes, so you need to do a little planning. But if you take a…

Yeah, and the really important point is that you get to see the prices a day ahead, which is what makes it actually pretty easy to live with. For instance, if I know it's going to be expensive when I'd be cooking tomorrow's evening meal, then I won't make something that would need a long time in the oven. And if it's going to be particularly cheap around lunchtime, then I'll plan to do a big load of laundry then. I h…

> For instance, if I know it's going to be expensive when I'd be cooking tomorrow's evening meal, then I won't make something that would need a long time in the oven. And if it's going to be particularly cheap around lunchtime, then I'll plan to do a big load of laundry then.

That sounds like something out of a dystopian novel lol.

Imagine setting up a complex system like this where you have to plan your food choices around energy prices when people in other countries pay a fraction of what you do all day around.