Britain has officially wasted £1BILLION turning off wind farms in 2026 because the electricity grid couldn’t cope

BRITAINN has already blown through £1billion this year paying wind farms to switch off while firing up pricey gas plants instead. New figures reveal the eye-watering milestone was hit last Saturday, a full two months earlier than the same point last year. The wasted wind bill is now £300million higher than this time in 2025, according to the Wasted Wind tracker. Britain’s electricity grid often can’t shift power from where it’s made to where it’s needed. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! That means wind farms in Scotland get paid to shut down, while expensive gas plants near cities in the south get switched on instead to keep the lights on. The costs of this bizarre system have more than doubled in just two years. Grid boss Neso has repeatedly urged ministers to overhaul the system – but the changes haven’t happened yet. Neso now predicts the so-called “constraint costs” could soar to £3.2billion over the next year alone. The Government has previously warned the bill could balloon to a jaw-dropping £10billion by 2030. The single worst day so far this year was July 2, when £21million was handed out in constraint payments in just 24 hours. Most read in Money Experts say the fix could be relatively simple – splitting Britain’s electricity market so prices better reflect where power is actually generated and used. Analysis suggests this could slash household bills by up to £114 a year. Octopus Energy boss Greg Jackson blasted the current system as “bonkers”. He said: “You wouldn’t grow tomatoes in your garden, only to bin them and buy expensive, imported ones from the shop. So why are we doing the same thing with electricity?” He added: “We should use this wind to give people cheap power locally, instead of paying billions to throw it away. “That’d be a welcome relief for families and businesses – it’s low hanging fruit that should absolutely appeal to a government which is focused on cost of living and devolution.” Comment now