Renewables industry says Budget could help deliver £12.6 billion balance-of-trade benefits

Failure to make the switch is likely to have huge cost and energy security implications, the REA warns, with the UK – the biggest gas consumer in Europe – projected to be reliant on imports for 80 per cent of its gas needs by 2020.

The REA commissioned the energy balance-of-trade report from consultants Delta-EE, largely in frustration at the UK Government’s failure to conduct a study of its own. It points out that a comprehensive cost/benefit study was carried out by the German government on its green energy programme as far back as 2007, showing net savings for industry and households of €5 billion by 2020, as fossil fuel imports drop.

Philip Wolfe, director general of the REA, said: “We hear a lot about the cost of renewables, and not enough about the upsides. This report shows how investment in sustainable energy leads to huge and increasing savings for the UK economy through avoided fossil fuel imports. Politicians say we cannot afford not to go green – this report helps spell out why.  On top of the employment and export benefits, the energy balance of payments is yet another reason why investment in renewables is essential for the economy, as well as for the planet.”

The REA’s head of external affairs, Leonie Greene, added: "The UK renewables industry is on tenterhooks for the Budget tomorrow. The industry has watched with envy as governments around the world have pumped large stimuli into the renewables sectors leaving the UK industry at a competitive disadvantage. We are looking tomorrow for direct support for the industry, particularly parts of the industry facing the end of grant programmes, and also for measures to quickly improve access to project finance."

It remains to be seen whether the REA is pushing at an open door. In the new industrial strategy it outlined yesterday, the Government indicated that it would be offering greater certainty and cohesion in its approach to the renewable energy sector. But the REA is reserving judgement until it sees what hard figures appear in the Budget tomorrow.

Wolfe said: “We’re certainly hoping [the Government] will take the arguments on board and provide tangible measures for the sector. Words are cheap so we would never a consider any written paper as ‘job done’. This country has published many excellent papers on sustainability, but real action has trailed far behind. Tomorrow’s Budget is the chance to change all that.”

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) is also looking for tomorrow’s Budget to trigger change. In a new report published today, ‘Wind, Wave & Tidal’s Contribution To Britain’s Industrial Future’, it calls on the Government to adopt a range of measures which, it claims, would have the effect of releasing an immediate £10 billion of private sector investment, £2.5 billion of which would be spent direct in the UK on installation and construction work.

This in turn, the BWEA says, would provide an immediate economic stimulus to the UK economy and pave the way for the creation of a £65 billion British wind and marine energy sector by 2020.

Specific measures called for by the BWEA include initiatives to encourage funding from sources such as the European Investment Bank for schemes struggling to raise project finance. It would also like the Government to take steps to relieve developers of the cost of the offshore grid by spreading the payment of transmission charges across all grid users, rather than just the project developers directly involved.

BWEA chairman Adam Bruce said: “There is now a wide consensus over the industrial potential offered by wind and marine renewables. The private sector is willing to invest billions to deliver a low carbon economy, and looks for further partnership with Government to clear both the short and long term obstacles to investment.”