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Will Brexit Affect Energy?

Radar gauges are going to be as important to the UK economy after Brexit as they were before, if not more so.

Though many topics have dominated the discussion around Brexit, energy hasn’t been one of them, though it is crucial for the country and economy.

While the UK does produce some of its own energy, both from North Sea oil and windfarms, and increasingly shale gas, it still obtains a lot of its energy from other countries in Europe, including Ireland.

There are currently four main cables that run between the UK, France, Ireland and Northern Ireland that export and import energy. There is currently work ongoing that will increase the capacity of these cables so that all markets can depend on greater flexibility to meet the growing demand. It will also allow countries to buy from wherever the power is cheapest.

This means that as the UK gets more depending on renewable energy then it will be able to create cheap renewable energy when conditions are good e.g. wind levels are high, and import as cheaply as possible from elsewhere when it is not.

However, some of these projects may not go ahead as much of the funding was reliant on the EU for completion.

“If rules governing the flows of electricity and gas around Europe are set outside the influence of the U.K., that could change how comfortable we are relying on imports,” Neil Cornelius, managing director at the Berkeley Research Group LLC said.