Nobody likes a messy break-up. The hurt feelings. The rejection. The realisation that you’ve made a terrible mistake. Or realising that you should have done it a long time ago. All your existing friendships are recalibrated. There can be financial implications. And nobody enjoys being handed back a box of legislative instruments that you lovingly nurtured together.
If Britons vote to leave the EU on 23 June the repercussions will be extensive. Both sides of the campaign will claim with equal sincerity that their version of the truth behind those consequences is correct. To take just one example, what would leaving the EU do to an average UK domestic utility bill? The In campaign claims, citing a National Grid report, that leaving the EU (and the internal energy market) will result in bills increasing £20 per household per year. The out campaign meanwhile, claims leaving would prevent bills going up £149 by 2020. Clearly they can’t both be right.
Before we start looking at the energy implications, it’s important to understand the legal process that underpins the route to the exit door and what form Britain’s relationship to the EU would then take.
If on the morning of 24 June (many of UK solar’s great and good will be at Intersolar in Munich), the UK wakes up to a vote now. What happens next?
To continue reading this article, download the latest edition of Solar Business Focus UK magazine which is available free of charge here. In this issue you’ll find not only the complete article on the implications a Brexit would have on the UK energy market, but also discussion of the five emerging trends for O&M, new marketing and lead generation techniques and opportunities for solar installers with local authorities.