Every UK household could be in line for £441 each off their energy bills if a change was made to focus on renewable energy instead of oil and gas, according to new analysis.

Dr Anupama Sen, co-author and Head of Policy Engagement at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment says households could get a £441 saving each if the government was to invest more in green energy for the UK, reducing the country’s reliance on imported gas and oil.

Analysis released on March 16 by the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment suggests that ‘maximising’ oil and gas extraction from the UK’s North Sea oil basin could save households as little as £16 to £82 a year each, if the tax revenues collected from the extra drilling were then redistributed to household bills.

But focusing instead on renewable energy would hand every household £441 a year under the same redistribution, says Dr Sen.

She said: “We show that regardless of the remaining lifetime of North Sea oil and gas, a ‘drill baby drill’ approach to extraction would actually cost households more money versus continuing on our path to clean energy.”

The estimated savings to households from maximised North Sea extraction assume that the Government would use the extra tax revenues solely to help lower household bills.

“If the Government did not choose to do this, there would be no discernible benefit to UK households at all, because oil and gas prices are set on and influenced by international markets – and we can see from recent events just how volatile they are,” warns Dr Sen.

The analysis used oil and gas prices from January 2026 before the recent spike caused by the conflict in Iran.

“Our analysis represents a conservative scenario, in which renewable energy competes against cheap fossil fuels. Even in this ‘worst case’ scenario, renewables are shown to be significantly more cost competitive,” says co-author Nadia Schroeder.

The authors stress that the savings gained from the clean energy transition are recurring annual reductions in bills which would continue indefinitely, whereas North Sea oil and gas is a finite resource that would run out around 2040.

“With the right mix of policies, households in the UK could benefit from lower bills and stable energy prices long into the future,” says Dr Sen.

It comes as wind energy across Great Britain hit a new record on Wednesday, producing enough electricity for more than 23 million homes across the country.

Solar and wind also combined to squeeze more expensive gas-fired generation to just 2.3% of the power mix, figures from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) show.

The record comes as the Government announced a £64 million grant to back the development of Port Talbot, in Wales, as the first port in the Celtic Sea to support floating offshore wind which can harness even more renewable power.

The Neso figures show that between 1.30pm and 2pm on Wednesday, wind generation hit 23,880 megawatts (MW) of electricity, beating the previous record of 23,825MW set on December 5 2025.

Slightly earlier at midday wind and solar power combined to produce 34 gigawatts (GW) of power, squeezing gas generation to just over a gigawatt, or 1,358MW – the lowest since April 2024.

At the time of the record, more than half of Britain’s electricity (53.5) was coming from wind power, a fifth came from solar, 10% from nuclear, 9.6% from trading over interconnectors with other European countries, 2.4% from biomass, 2.3% from gas, 1.5% from other sources and 0.4% from hydro, Neso said.

Kayte O’Neill, chief operating officer at Neso, said: “This is a world-leading record, showing that our national electricity system can run safely and securely on large quantities of renewables generated right here in Britain.

“We’ve come on leaps and bounds in wind generation in recent years.

“It really shows what is possible, and I look forward to seeing if we can hit another clean energy milestone in the months ahead: running Britain’s electricity grid entirely zero carbon.”

The record comes as the UK faces rising energy costs as a result of the Middle East crisis which has pushed up global oil and gas prices.

There have been calls to increase drilling in the North Sea in light of the crisis following the US-Israeli war on Iran, to boost energy security, although experts have warned that will not significantly bring down prices or secure supplies.

Meanwhile the Government has doubled down on its push towards clean energy, with new housing rules mandating heat pumps and solar panels, access to plug-in solar panels for homeowners and bringing forward renewable energy auctions for major wind farms and other projects.

In its latest move, it has provided £64 million funding for Associated British Ports to complete the design and engineering work needed to build one of the first floating offshore wind ports in the UK at Port Talbot.