- Since 2015, the government has offered contracts worth more than £20bn to create back up reserves
- Consumers could be paying for gas power plants until 2040
- This is after the government promises to remove 95% of fossil fuels from the electricity system
The UK has paid out more than £12.5bn from energy bills to fossil fuel power plants over the past 10 years, according to a new analysis by Aurora Energy Research, commissioned by Beyond Fossil Fuels.
The group found that since 2015 the government has offered contracts worth more than £20bn to make backup reserves of generators on standby through a ‘capacity market scheme’.
Approximately 60% of them were fossil fuel power plants and 25% were energy storage and power cable projects.
Among these reserves were 90 gas power plants that included up to 15 years backed by a levy on energy bills, meaning households will be paying for gas plants beyond 2040.
For context, this is 10 years after the government has promised to remove 95% of fossil fuels from the UK’s electricity system.
At an annual capacity market, it was found that the UK offered the highest gas power payments in Europe, revealing that a total of 53bn euros (£45bn) has been granted to fossil fuel plants through Europe’s capacity markets since 2015.
According to The Guardian, these payments included contracts for almost 200 gas-fired power plants, some of which are new.
Outside of the UK, Italy has allocated 18.4bn euros in total, of which 15bn euros was given to gas plants, and only 2.2bn was paid to clean power options.
Juliet Phillips, a campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels, called on governments to “end all fossil fuels subsidies” and “rapidly scale up investments in renewables, grids and flexibility solutions, which stabilise energy bills and protect the climate.”
