Europe was largely dependent of Russian gas, and when that was cut off, they had to build other sources ASAP. That is always expensive. Remember the Engineering Axiom. You can have it fast, you can have it cheap, you can have it right. Choose any two, you cannot have all three. With a grid, you have to have it right, so there was no chance of having it cheap. You can build out renewables and the backup far faster than building fossil fuel or nuclear generators. Right now, you order a steam turbine from GE it will be eight years before they even start building it. You can build out a solar installation or wind farm in a year.