Home heating oil in Northern Ireland down in price again from last week

​The cost of 900 litres on Thursday dropped slightly to £650 a litre, compared to £661. The previous week it reached a recent low of £644.

But the cost is far lower than it was in the run-up to Christmas, when 900L cost £878.

That recent high was itself notably lower than the post Ukraine invasion peak of a £1181 a fortnight after President Putin sent Russian tanks across the border into his neighbour's territory.

That peak price was more than twice the pre invasion cost of £551 for 900 litres.

Meanwhile, experts have warned that the government might fail to secure as much investment in renewable energy as it hopes this summer.

Ministers on Thursday said that they would allow companies to bid for £205 million in support in an upcoming renewables auction.

The so-called Contracts for Difference (CfD) system was launched in 2015 to encourage companies to invest in new renewables.

It is essentially a guarantee that the grid will buy all the electricity that a new wind farm produces for 15 years at a set price.

This gives developers the certainty that they need to fork out major upfront costs by making them immune to big drops in electricity costs.

But in the last year it has also benefited customers because the fixed costs that wind producers have been getting have been lower than the market price of electricity.

However the era of ultra-cheap wind power might be dealt a blow this summer when bids open for the next auction.

Last year several developers agreed to build wind farms against a promise they would be paid £37.35 per megawatt hour (MWh) that the sites produced.

This price was so cheap it would have been competitive with electricity produced in gas power plants even before gas prices soared in recent years.

For comparison the price of electricity on the open market on Thursday was hovering around £145 per MWh.

Experts have warned that developers might struggle to offer such low prices this time around as they deal with soaring costs for materials and the staff needed to put up the wind turbines.