Energy Bills Are Rising 13% in July – Here’s How Solar Lets You Stop Paying

From 1 July 2026, Ofgem’s energy price cap rises by 13%. For a typical household, that means an annual bill of £1,862 – up £221 from £1,641 just three months ago. That is £18 more every single month, for the same energy you were already using.

The uncomfortable truth: this is not a one-off shock. The price cap has changed every quarter since 2022. It went up in January, and it is going up again tomorrow.

The reason this time? Wholesale gas prices driven higher by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to Ofgem’s official announcement. Gas unit rates are rising 24%. Electricity is up 5%. And the next review is already scheduled for August, with October rates to follow.

If you are on a standard variable tariff – which covers around 33 million households across England, Scotland and Wales – you have no say in any of this. The price is set for you, every three months, by forces entirely outside your control.

Why the Price Cap Will Keep Rising

Britain generates around 40% of its electricity from gas, and buys most of that gas on international wholesale markets. When those markets move – because of a war, a cold winter in Europe, or a supply disruption on the other side of the world – your bill moves with them. Every quarter. Without warning.

This is not a problem that a new energy supplier will fix. Switching tariffs shuffles the deck; it does not change the game. Even fixed-rate deals are priced with future volatility baked in, meaning suppliers charge a premium for the certainty they are offering you.

The only way to stop paying someone else’s wholesale price is to generate your own electricity.

That is not a sales pitch. It is arithmetic. Every unit of solar electricity your roof produces is a unit you do not buy from the grid at 26.11p per kWh – the new rate from today.

What Solar Actually Does to Your Bill

A typical home solar installation in the UK generates between 3,000 and 4,500 kWh of electricity per year, depending on roof orientation and system size. At today’s new rate of 26.11p per kWh, that translates to between £783 and £1,175 in avoided grid costs annually – before you factor in any export payments for surplus electricity sent back to the grid.

Here is how the numbers stack up against the new price cap:

Add a battery and you are capturing the solar generation you would otherwise export at a lower rate, using it in the evening when the grid is at its most expensive. The system pays for itself, and then generates free electricity for the 20+ year lifespan of the panels.

The price cap cannot touch electricity you generate yourself. That is the point.

The Right Time to Act

Every quarter you wait is another quarter paying the full grid rate. With the October 2026 review already on the horizon and wholesale gas markets still volatile, there is no credible forecast that suggests bills will return to pre-2022 levels in the near term.

The case for solar has never been stronger:

• Grid electricity costs more than ever – 26.11p/kWh from today, versus around 16p in 2021
• Solar panel costs have fallen significantly – system prices are down roughly 50% over the last decade
• The Smart Export Guarantee pays you for surplus electricity you send back to the grid
• Battery storage prices have dropped – making self-consumption even more viable

If you own your home and have a south, south-east, or south-west facing roof, a solar assessment costs nothing and takes minutes. The question is not whether solar saves money. At today’s rates, it does. The question is how much longer you want to keep funding the wholesale gas market before you stop.

Get a free solar quote from Project Solar and find out exactly what your roof could generate – and what it could save you before the next price cap review in October.

Written By Kitty Dawbarn