Brexit sees UK drop to new low in global renewable energy league table

[kristopher]

Brexit sees UK drop to new low in global renewable energy league table
The Government’s decisions to scrap the Department for Energy and Climate Change and approve a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point also hit investor confidence in green energy

Ian Johnston Environment Correspondent Thursday 27 October 2016


The UK has fallen to its lowest position on an international league table of the best countries to invest in renewable energy following Brexit and Theresa May’s decision to scrap the Energy and Climate Change Department.

Analysts EY, part of financial giant Ernst & Young Global, put Britain, normally a regular in the top 10, in 14th place on the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index, just behind Morocco.

The UK energy industry has complained that numerous and sudden changes in Government policy are putting off potential investors in any kind of electricity generation, threatening what could be a “golden age” of cheap and green power.

In a report, EY said: “Uncertainty caused by Brexit, the closure of the Department of Energy & Climate Change and the approval of [nuclear power plant] Hinkley Point C all dealt a sizeable blow to the UK renewables sector....

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/brexit-renewable-energy-investment-uk-nuclear-power-department-energy-climate-change-a7382686.html


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[Old and In the Way]

1. Conservatives always value trailing edge technologies.

Progressives always support forward thinking technologies. Labor intensive, clean renewables that decentralizes the energy grid is the future. Smart people get it.

[kristopher]

2. I don't think it's leading or trailing that matters so much as...

...which technology offers the greatest opportunity for extracting profit. Centralized generation creates a bottleneck where excessive rent is able to be extracted. Locally owned distributed resources and equipment, on the other hand, meet most of the criteria for an efficiently functioning market (more like TVs than power plants).