UK wholesale day-ahead electricity prices surge to a record high

Having a look at gridwatch.co.uk now and then is very telling.

Electricity generation is mostly gas and coal has been reactivated. As I'm typing coal supplies 4% of electricity, wind 3%.

We're hitting a key issues with renewables like solar and wind. This is winter in the UK, we're not going to get a lot out of solar and if we hit a calm patch (there's been little wind lately) we're pretty much screwed.

The UK actually has some of that (pumped storage, mostly). But not enough to last long enough.