Record wind farm output has helped boost the United Kingdom’s clean electricity supply to new levels by 2026, and has allowed power plants to cut fossil fuel use to multi-year lows.
The growth of wind production has helped to protect the UK’s energy system from the worst effects of the US and Israel’s war against Iran, which has interrupted the supply of fuel from the Middle East and sent the cost of oil and natural gas.
Electricity from wind farms in the UK during the first three months of 2026 has increased by 31% from the same months in 2025, data from LSEG shows, helping to raise the production of clean energy in general by 16% from last year and the total energy output by 4%.
The high clean and total energy output has also allowed utilities to curb the use of fossil fuels, especially last month when regional gas prices rose after the outbreak of the Iran war.
While several other European countries are reeling from a new surge in oil and gas costs, the UK’s wind energy system may serve as a blueprint for other countries looking to reduce their exposure to fossil fuels.
Spirit of the Spirit
UK production from metered wind farms – which feed directly into the electricity grid – increased by 33% in the period January to March compared to the same months in 2025, to around 33,000 megawatts (MW) per 30 minutes, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Output from small installed wind farms – which connect to the local distribution network – increases by 27% from 2025 to 7,800 MW per 30 minutes.
For both wind farm categories, output during the January to March window was the highest since at least 2023, and helped establish wind power as the UK’s single largest energy source.
Total wind generation accounted for around 42% of the UK’s total electricity generation in the period January to March, compared to 33% from wind farms during the same months in 2025.
Fuel Fuel Curbs
Record output from the UK’s biomass plants – which burn wood pellets and municipal waste – have also helped boost UK clean energy so far this year, and helped reduce emissions from nuclear, solar and hydro plants, LSEG data shows.
The generally higher electricity supply has also enabled UK power plants to reduce the use of gas plants, which saw a 16% drop in output in January to March compared to the previous year.
The year-on-year decline in gas production worsened in March, with total gas production down 26% from March 2025.
As in March when global gas markets took their worst reaction to the outbreak of the US-Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, reducing the use of UK gas by power plants could help UK utilities to prevent major cost overruns.
Since the end of February – before the Iranian bombings – UK natural gas prices TRGBNBPD1 have risen by almost 74%, outpacing the 67% increase in European gas prices TRNLTTFMc1 during that period.
Some of the UK’s main industrial gas users may have had no choice but to pay for gas in recent weeks, and have therefore maintained gas supplies across the country.
But thanks to a very strong breather, electricity producers have been able to reduce their exposure to the gas market until 2026, which could reduce any increasing pressure on UK electricity bills.
Price to watch
Electricity sales prices will show how well UK power firms have fared in the Iran crisis so far.
In the first three months of 2026, wholesale electricity prices in the UK are now around €89 per megawatt hour, according to LSEG.
That compares to an average of about 101 euros in Germany, 137 euros in Italy, and about 70 euros in France.
The reduction in the price of UK energy to Germany – Europe’s largest economy and producer – is something new, as the cost of electricity in the UK was still trading above that of Germany until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused gas prices to rise.
Since then the UK’s power plants have ramped up renewable energy in a bid to reduce the country’s reliance on imported fossil fuels for energy.
Record production from UK wind farms this year suggests that significant progress has been made in that field, with the UK now consistently generating more electricity from clean energy sources than Germany, according to Ember.
But as the Iran conflict continues, the UK’s energy system is not out of the woods yet, and could still feel a big impact from the Iran conflict once wind production drops in the summer months.
However, for now, UK wind farms have demonstrated the benefits of home grown energy production, and could encourage other regional economies to expand their wind energy capacity as well.
The views expressed here are those of the author, a Reuters correspondent.
(Reuters – Reporting by Gavin Maguire; Editing by Lincoln Festival.)
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