Yes, its because it is still short of %100 renewables and EU is importing its fossil fuels. When Russia invaded Ukraine it caused a spike in prices, now its coming down. Prices will go down as renewables proliferate, probably we will pay some fixed amount as equipment maintenance fee once its %100.

Probably more to do with taxes etc. Better would be to look at cost of production and not cost to consumer with taxes and fees. Then you arent comparing the production but rather different models of socity

Only when it’s dark, overcast, winter or really cold. Otherwise it’s mainly due to the extreme overcapacity required to handle distributed unreliable energy sources as well as an increasing fleet of electric cars, stressing every last kilometer of the grid. And windmills, a reliance on methane gas as gap-filling and a few other issues. (Sorry, I know snarking is frowned upon on HN - but we choose this collective delusion over the hellish, yet stable, Cherenkov light of nuclear)