Renewable Capture Price Index

Volume-weighted average price wind and solar generation actually earn in the UK market — compared to the flat system average.

7 days30 daysYTDAll
Wind capture price
£84.79/MWh
-10.4% vs system avg
Solar capture price
£80.43/MWh
-15.0% vs system avg
System avg price
£94.62/MWh
1 Jan 2026 – 24 Jul 2026
Wind discount-£9.83/MWh
Solar discount-£14.18/MWh
Data points205 days
▬ Wind capture▬ Solar capture╌ System avg
£-75£-50£-25£0£25£50£75£100£125£150£175£200£225£250£275£300£32501-0101-2602-2003-1704-1105-0605-3106-2507-20

What is capture price?

The system price is the average cost of electricity across all half-hour settlement periods in a day. But a wind farm or solar array doesn't generate evenly through the day — it generates when the wind blows or the sun shines.

The capture price is the price a generator actually earns, weighted by when it generates. If a wind farm produces more power at times when the system price is already being pushed down by other generators, it captures less than the simple average.

This gap is called the cannibalization effect: as more wind and solar connect to the grid, their collective output tends to coincide — sunny, windy periods see high renewable output across the board, which suppresses prices precisely when each individual asset is generating most. The more renewables on the system, the stronger this effect tends to be.

The gap between capture price and system average is the real revenue discount renewable asset owners face — and it compounds the economics of any curtailment or skip-rate losses already tracked on this platform.

Methodology

Calculation
Capture price = SUM(generation × system_sell_price) ÷ SUM(generation), calculated across all 30-minute settlement periods in the window. Wind combines onshore and offshore volumes before weighting.
Generation data
Elexon BMRS — GET /generation/actual/per-type/wind-and-solar, half-hourly actual/estimated output for Wind Onshore, Wind Offshore, and Solar. Updated every 20 minutes. Stored per settlement period in D1.
Price data
Elexon settlement system sell price per half-hour period — same source as the Grid Status widget. Updated every 20 minutes.
Historical coverage
Daily history extends back to 1 January 2024 — archive availability verified against Elexon at 15 Jan, 1 Jun, and 1 Nov 2024 on both the generation and settlement-price endpoints. The “All” view renders from pre-aggregated daily figures computed with the same VWAP calculation as the live windows.
Last updated
24 Jul, 21:20 UTC