When prices get obscured so does their information

This sounds like good news:

The price of offshore wind power has fallen to a record low amid growing competition among developers in a boost to Britain's attempt to ditch fossil fuel imports.

Developers have agreed to build new farms for a guaranteed electricity price of £37.35 per MWh, beating the previous record of £39.65 per MWh set in 2019. The prices have fallen more than 65pc since 2015, when they were almost £120 per MWh.

Gosh, how jolly. So, that seems to be that problem dealt with and we can all stop worrying then, can’t we?

Except that’s not actually the end of the matter. There’s still intermittency to deal with even if that’s not our point here. This though is:

Britain’s power networks need at least £54 billion of investment to connect up new offshore wind farms this decade, according to National Grid.

Hundreds of miles of onshore cabling will need to be built as part of the plans set out yesterday, which would represent the biggest investment in Britain’s electricity transmission networks since the 1960s.

That £54 billion is clearly a cost of offshore wind. Yet it’s not being included in those costs of those offshore wind contracts.

Prices do contain information, hugely valuable information. Which is why we’ve been so insistent over the years that the way to deal with this problem is via clear and transparent - and just the one - intervention into the price system. Instead of this motley collection of planning decisions which - and we don’t think we’re being too cynical in saying this - seems deliberately designed to obfuscate. To cover up, rather than reveal, the information that prices could convey to us.

Given that prices are information it’s always worth asking why folk won’t let us see clear and simple prices. That they’re trying to make sure we don’t get the information is a useful starting point for the rest of the discussion, no?