Green infrastructure investment is being jeopardised by regulations in the UK that favour EU energy imports, according to new research by the Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG).
The research shows that operators in Germany, France and the Netherlands are able to export energy cheaper than projects in the UK, because they pay low transmission charges or none at all, the researchers found.
Electricity generators in the UK pay transmission charges for the cost of building and maintaining the network, set by the regulator Ofgem and ultimately paid by consumers as part of their bills, RIDG noted.
Therefore, the UK risks becoming a net importer of renewable energy in the decades ahead, despite having the best wind energy resource in Europe which should, with the right regulations in place, be used to drive export-led growth, said trade group RenewableUK.