The Cost of UK Renewables Subsidies?

£8,000 per household at 2024 prices!!

This study provides an estimate of the total cost of five direct and five indirect subsidies to the renewable electricity sector in the United Kingdom since 2002. We find that:

• In the period 2002 to the present, the total cost to the electricity consumer of those renewable electricity subsidy schemes that we can quantify has amounted to approximately £220 billion (in 2024 prices), equivalent to nearly £8,000 per household.

  
  

• The annual subsidy cost is currently £25.8 billion a year, a sum equivalent to nearly fifty per cent of UK annual spending on defence.

  
  

• Subsidy to renewable electricity generators now comprises about 40% of the total cost of electricity supply in the United Kingdom (Figure 1 below).

https://www.ref.org.uk/ref-blog/390-uk-renewable-electricity-subsidy-totals-2002-to-the-present-day?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6OJKIMvRxYTU0nxtt0TgC37Jfa5bWU00RhycrxLr7UZefQampVrRyBAZY6Ng_aem_3m0BnP7qP_fRhes37ceN2g