Everything you need to know about clean energy this week

• Energy bills and their imminent increase are at the top of the agenda
• Clean energy saves the UK £7m a day
• Plug in solar panels can save households £1,100

Everyone’s worrying about their energy bills, and it’s easy to see why. Thanks to Donald Trump’s war with Iran (now stopped with an uneasy conditional ceasefire) and the fact that the price of gas is ludicrously high compared to February, household bills will definitely go up when the next energy price cap comes into effect on 1 July 2026.

The question is: by how much? While we can’t say for certain, it will likely be by at least 10-20%, which would mean billpayers will be shelling out hundreds of pounds for energy. We can only be grateful that it’s spring and not winter. 

It’s not all bad news though. Renewables are coming to the rescue, in particular solar panels… at least that’s the hope. Last week we wrote about plug-in solar panels that can live on your balcony, creating cheap and clean energy. Experts think the households could save UK billpayers £1,100 in 15 years by using plug-in solar panels. This is an amazing opportunity for people to really cut down on their energy bills. 

But are plug-in solar panels the long-term answer to ballooning energy bills? We’ll have to wait and see. What we do know is that demand for solar panels more generally is booming, with one company reporting its orders doubling in March and some households having to join waiting lists for installation. 

Clean energy as a whole is also seeing massive growth, with renewables accounting for more than half of all the electricity the UK generated in 2025, before the war started. Will this continue? We can only hope so as the power of renewables to create cheap energy is clearer than ever before. Industry experts Ember have gone as far to say that the UK has saved about £7m a day due to higher gas prices. 

The demand for solar panels and clean energy is there. The government just needs to make sure it’s met. 

Clean energy saves UK £7m a day

The US-Iran war has meant a massive increase in the price of gas, but the UK’s growing fleet of solar and wind farms has saved £7m every day since the war has started. According to Ember, the cost of gas-fired power generation has increased 42%, reaching £110.42/megawatt per hour (MWh) – up from £77.75/MWh the week before the war began. 

In that time, wind and solar supplied 40% of the UK’s electricity demand, while gas accounted for only 23%.

Energy analyst Josie Murdoch says this shows the potential for wind and solar to cut the country’s dependence on gas. 

US-Iran conditional ceasefire: will our energy bills go up or down?

The war, for the next two weeks, has come to a conditional ceasefire, and the Strait of Hormuz is open again, but what will this mean for our energy bills? Most still predict a huge increase in July, but will it be as bad as we first thought? We won’t know until the 27 May when the next energy price cap gets announced. 

Plug-in solar panels can save households £1,100

Last week we told you about plug-in solar panels and that if you have a balcony you can simply plug it into your wall and get cheap and clean energy. This week we can tell you that they can save £1,100 over the course of their lifetime, according to analysis from Carbon Brief.

Researchers in Japan boast about ‘130%’ solar cell efficiency

This is potentially great news for billpayers. Right now, the average solar panel is about 24% efficient. That means only 24% of the sunlight that hits the panel is converted into energy. An efficiency of 130% means your panel will be generating more power for your home, meaning you can get your bills down to £0 much faster. The real question is if and when households will be able to install solar panels that are 130% efficient? We explain more about solar panel efficiency here.

Renewable energy costs

• Solar PV system: £7,524.67

• Solar storage battery: £9,311.11

• Air source heat pump: £13,676.96

• Ground source heat pump: £28,923.18

Number of the week

£1,100

That’s how much some believe plug-in solar panels can save over their lifetime. 

Sources:

• https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uk-natural-gas
• www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-plug-in-solar-can-save-uk-homes-1100-on-energy-bills/
• https://inews.co.uk/news/solar-panel-waiting-lists-homeowners-demand-soars-4328197?srsltid=AfmBOoqgddU28OrZJgxLftTa1DVFeZWo09E2iD5XfTbKKbb2ezSf-t-h
• https://www.sciencealert.com/new-breakthrough-in-solar-cell-efficiency-hits-130-quantum-yield

Written By

Maximilian Schwerdtfeger Deputy editor

Max joined The Eco Experts as content manager in February 2024 and became deputy editor in 2025. He has written about sustainability issues across numerous industries, including maritime, supply chain, finance, mining, and retail. He has also written extensively for consumer titles like City AM, The Morning Star, and The Daily Express.

He has represented The Eco Experts on national television several times, including the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live and ITV Tonight .

In 2020, he covered in detail the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) legislation on sulphur emissions and its effects on the global container shipping market as online editor of Port Technology International.

He also explored the initiatives major container ports and terminals have launched in order to ship vital goods across the world without polluting the environment.

Since then, he has reported heavily on the impact made by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices on the supply chain of minerals, with a particular focus on rare earth mining in Africa.

As part of this, in 2022 Max visited mines and ports in Angola to hone in on the challenges being faced by one of the world’s biggest producers of rare earth minerals.

His most recent sustainability-related work came much closer to home, as he investigated the eco-challenges faced by independent retailers in the UK, specifically looking at how they can cut emissions and continue to thrive.

Max lives in South London and is an avid reader of books on modern history. He has also recently learned to play the game Mahjong and takes every opportunity to do so. He is also yet to find a sport he doesn’t enjoy watching.

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