UK loses top ten renewable ranking

• 8 years ago (2015-09-16)

Asia 849 Europe 1061 North America 998 Nuclear 640 Renewables 752

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The quarterly report by Ernst and Young (EY), the UK-based professional services company, stated that the new Conservative government was inflicting “death by a thousand cuts” to the UK renewables industry, as policy changes and cuts to subsidies had eroded investor confidence.

In June, when the rankings were last published, the UK was in eighth place, but it has now dropped to eleventh. The report cites the end of subsidies for onshore wind power and large-scale solar power projects as well as major changes to the climate change levy as the core reasons for the loss of confidence.

Energy corporate finance leader at EY, Ben Warren, said: “Investors looking at the UK are scratching their heads. The government is saying on the one hand that they’re trying to reduce the cost of energy for working families but on the other hand saying they want to go for shale gas and CCS which are unproven markets, new nuclear build and offshore wind which are substantially more expensive than renewables such as onshore wind and solar PV. Investors don’t know what the government is trying to achieve.”

He added that it was “not very normal” for a country to drop by three places in a single quarter. Since EY’s report, the government has blocked a £3.5 billion ($5.43 billion) wind farm off the coast of Bournemouth.

Elsewhere in the report, China lost top spot to the US – due in no small part to Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan – while India pushed Germany out of third place.