Analysis: Wind and solar have saved UK from gas imports worth £1.7bn since Iran war began

<p>The UK has avoided the need for gas imports worth £1.7bn since the start of the Iran war, as a result of record electricity generation from wind and solar, reveals Carbon Brief analysis.</p>

<p>The surge in wind and solar output is cutting the need for gas-fired generation, which has been nearly a third lower than last year and fell to record lows in both March and April 2026.</p>

<p>The figure below shows that wind and solar have generated a record 21 terawatt hours (TWh) on the island of Great Britain since the end of February 2026, when the US and Israel first attacked Iran.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Chart showing that wind and solar have saved UK from gas imports worth £1.7bn since Iran war began" class="wp-image-62330" height="1463" src="https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Wind_and_solar-scaled.png" width="2560" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Monthly generation from wind and solar in terawatt hours on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), which has a separate electricity system from the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland. Source: National Energy System Operator (NESO) and Carbon Brief analysis.</figcaption></figure>

<p>Amid another fossil-fuel price crisis, the record wind and solar output since the start of the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-does-the-iran-war-mean-for-the-energy-transition-and-climate-action/">Iran war</a> avoided the need to import 41TWh of gas –&nbsp;roughly <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-clean-energy-will-cut-uk-gas-imports-by-more-than-north-sea-drilling/">34 tankers</a> of liquified natural gas (LNG).</p>

<p>Importing those 34 tankers of LNG would have cost around £1.7bn, given the high gas prices triggered by the conflict.</p>

<p>At the same time, record wind and solar helped to cut electricity generation from gas by around a third year-on-year to the lowest levels ever recorded for the months of March and April, as shown in the figure below.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Chart showing that gas generation has hit record lows since Iran war began" class="wp-image-62328" height="1427" src="https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Gas_generation_record_low.png" width="2487" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Monthly generation from gas in terawatt hours on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), which has a separate electricity system from the island of Ireland, includingNorthern Ireland. Source: National Energy System Operator (NESO) and Carbon Brief analysis.</figcaption></figure>

<p>Together, wind and solar have generated more than twice as much electricity as fossil fuels over the period since the Iran war began. The country’s electricity mix has now flipped: a <a href="https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/how-uk-transformed-electricity-supply-decade/index.html">decade</a> ago, fossil fuels were generating more than four times as much electricity as wind and solar.</p>

<p>Indeed, wind and solar have generated more electricity than fossil fuels for a record 15 months in a row. As shown in the figure below, this included a full winter season for the first time in 2025-26.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Chart showing that wind and solar have beaten fossil fuels for a record 15 months in a row" class="wp-image-62329" height="1429" src="https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Wind_and_solar_beating_fossil-scaled.png" width="2560" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Monthly generation from fossil fuels (red) vs wind and solar (blue) in terawatt hours on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), which has a separate electricity system from the island of Ireland, includingNorthern Ireland. Source: National Energy System Operator (NESO) and Carbon Brief analysis.</figcaption></figure>

<p>This meant that gas was <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-why-does-gas-set-the-price-of-electricity-and-is-there-an-alternative/">setting the price</a> of electricity roughly 25% less often in both <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/edcporter_how-often-did-gas-set-the-price-for-march-activity-7445031147643928576-0v-o?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAL7qHQBAyJW0oiRL6RFnZ3OBIpxayxUBHQ">March 2026</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7455612620050530305/">April 2026</a> than in the same month in 2022, when fossil-fuel prices spiked after <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-does-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-mean-for-energy-and-climate-change/">Russia’s invasion of Ukraine</a>.</p>

<p>April 2026 also marked a series of other records for the GB electricity system.</p>

<p>For half an hour between 15.30 and 16:00 on 22 April, a <a href="https://www.neso.energy/britains-electricity-system-breaks-zero-carbon-record-gas-reaches-historic-low-and-solar-hits-historic-high">record 98.8%</a> of the electricity feeding into the country’s main “transmission” grid&nbsp;came from zero-carbon sources, according to the <a href="https://www.neso.energy/">National Energy System Operator</a> (NESO).</p>

<p>In addition, solar generation hit a series of new record-highs, ultimately reaching 15.4 gigawatts (GW) on the afternoon of 23 April. Wind set a new record of 23.9GW on 25 March.</p>

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<p>The post <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-wind-and-solar-have-saved-uk-from-gas-imports-worth-1-7bn-since-iran-war-began/">Analysis: Wind and solar have saved UK from gas imports worth £1.7bn since Iran war began</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org">Carbon Brief</a>.</p>