Net Zero subsidies and grid upgrades set to cost £40bn a year by 2030

Net Zero subsidies and grid integration costs will exceed £40 billion a year by 2030, a report claims.

Clean energy subsidies, which include wind and nuclear, are predicted to increase from £11.8billion a year to just under £15billion.

In 2010/2011 they were just £500million, according to a report by the think tank Prosperity, which owns a stake in GB News's parent company.

Meanwhile, integration costs – which include connecting the grid to renewable projects and the handling of intermittent energy – are set to triple, from £8billion a year to £25billion, the report states.

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Prosperity says the combined subsidy and integration costs have grown six-fold since 2010, reaching £19.8billion last year. They are forecast to exceed £40billion by 2030/31.

Energy analyst David Turver, behind the report, said: “These extra costs are not sus­tain­able and run the risk of cre­at­ing an eco­nomic cata­strophe.

“Drastic action is there­fore required to roll back these hid­den charges and bring elec­tri­city costs down. The Gov­ern­ment can no longer treat energy bills as a cash cow to be milked to fund their dreams of achiev­ing Net Zero.”

The paper calls for the Climate Change Act to be repealed, an end to renewable subsidies and the scaling back of planned grid expansion.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says the figures are misleading because they do not take into account the savings from clean energy.

But the think tank argues that the costs are “a grave threat to our national prosperity”.

It said: “Decisive action — including contract renegotiation, subsidy removal and a reorientation towards affordability and security of supply — is required, even if this involves difficult political and legal challenges.”

Maurice Cousins, Campaigns Director at Net Zero Watch, said: “Britain’s high energy costs are not simply the result of recent geopolitical shocks, but the cumulative consequence of decisions taken by successive Governments over two decades.

“In this excellent paper, David Turver shows how the full burden of the energy system has been deliberately obscured by dispersing it across different charging mechanisms and schemes.

“The net effect is to allow harmful policies to persist because their underlying costs are never properly confronted by MPs, the media, businesses, or households.

“This matters not only for economic prosperity and national security, but for the functioning of our democracy, which ultimately depends on voters having reliable access to the true state of affairs if they are to exercise informed judgement at the ballot box.”

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Richard Tice MP, Deputy Leader of Reform, said: “The effects of Net Stupid Zero on British households truly know no bounds.

“As this new report from the Prosperity Institute shows, the green vanity projects pursued for twenty years by our political establishment are rapidly spiralling out of control.

“The costs are often hidden from billpayers, but by 2031, when they'll possibly be paying hundreds more each year for their energy bills in order to fund renewables, there will be nowhere left to hide.

“We need radical change on energy policy and we need it now - Britain's future prosperity depends on it.”

Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said that unless the UK moved to clean power it would be a hostage to crises such as the Iran conflict.

She said that the grid would need upgrading regardless of the impact of renewables, but pointed out that more clean energy would end up lowering bills.

She said: “It’s ironic to see this report barely a week after gas prices hit a four-month high as a result of conflicts in the Middle East.

“We know the energy crises have cost the UK over £180 billion already, with high and volatile fossil-fuel prices to blame.”

She added: “The UK electricity grid needs modernising and upgrading after decades of underinvestment, with spending today delivering benefits in the coming years.

“British renewables lower bills and make us less dependent on foreign gas, so ensuring the grid can maximise their output is a no-brainer.”

A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that more renewables would bring down the wholesale price of electricity.

The cost of climate damage was growing while the cost of the transition to clean power was coming down, the department said.

The spokesman said: “We do not recognise these figures, which ignore the savings clean homegrown power will bring.

"Net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century and we've seen £100billion of private investment announced into clean energy since July 2024.

“The Energy Secretary's focus is bringing bills down, driving growth in every postcode and delivering jobs for communities.”

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