The UK can no longer power itself – 41% of our power now comes from abroad

What happens if any of those countries supplying us turn off the tap?

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

Facts4EU.Org reveals the highly vulnerable position of the UK thanks to Net Zero policies

In our last report we set out the large emissions embedded in our imported goods, effectively masking the true size of the country's 'carbon footprint'. This report reveals the massive dependency the UK now has on the supply of energy from abroad. The UK is sitting on some of the richest natural sources of energy in the world, including enormous oil, gas, and coal deposits. Despite this, successive government policies have now made the United Kingdom beholden to foreign countries for over 40% of its energy needs.

A Brexit Facts4EU.Org Series
Implications of Net Zero

Part I - The latest data on where the UK stands in terms of its ‘global carbon footprint’
Part II - Our governments have ‘offshored’ our jobs and imported dirty goods
Part III (This report) - The UK can no longer power itself
Part IV - Government’s new plans to carpet a large part of the countryside with solar panels and wind turbines

No country in the world can survive without power. Along with food and shelter, power is now an essential need, without which the United Kingdom would grind to a halt. The UK is now reliant on the goodwill of other countries to keep the lights burning, the radiators heating, and the production lines rolling.

We can now quantify this and can reveal the catastrophic vulnerability of the United Kingdom to the whims or actual needs of foreign countries, without whose energy the lights would go out all over Britain.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The UK’s dependency on foreign fuel supplies in 2023

Gross fuel consumption : 170.3m tonnes (eq)
Net imports of fuel : 69.5m tonnes (eq)

Proportion of UK fuels supplied by other countries : 40.8%

The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood commented to us on our report

"The UK's policy of keeping our own energy in the ground is a mad form of self harm. We lose well paid jobs. We go without big tax levies on the fuels. We add to world CO2 as we still burn the same amount of gas, oil and coal and have to bring it here by diesel-burning ship.
"Our electricity policy under this government rushing through the closure of our old nuclear plants and our gas plants threatens us with power cuts. When we have low wind days we are forced to pay emergency sky-high prices to import. One day we will find we cannot even do that and out go the lights.
"Why can’t our government see the disastrous folly of this policy? They should allow us to produce our own oil, gas and coal and keep enough gas-fired power stations to ensure we have power when the wind drops."

In 2023 net import dependency was 40.8%, 3.8 percentage points higher than in 2022

Net imports of fuels in 2023 at 69.5 mtoe were 6.8% higher than in 2022 and accounted for 40.8% of consumption in 2023, up from 37.0% in 2022 and at the highest share level since 2014.

Above we have shown the trend for the same 20-year period we have used throughout this short Net Zero series.

Official data : This report is based on analysing 100’s of pages of reports from the Net Zero Dept.

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Next we turn to the electricity component of the UK’s energy needs

What follows concerns another part of the UK’s energy mix – that of the direct supply of electricity from countries which are close by and are connected to the UK by underwater cables. In effect this is instant power, which could be turned off if the foreign country needs it itself, which happened in 2022 with France.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The source of the electricity entering your home

UK electricity generation : 316.8 TWh
Net electricity imports via cable from abroad : 23.8 TWh

Proportion of UK electricity directly supplied via cable by other countries : 7.5%

The chart above shows the amount of electricity directly supplied by four countries

7.5% may not sound like a large percentage, but if it were suspended or cancelled it would have a very significant effect on electricity provision in the UK.

The 7.5% only refers to actual electricity supplied directly from abroad via 'interconnector' cables. The rest of the electricity is generated in the UK, but this also relies on foreign countries, as the energy used to power the electricity stations is heavily dependent on the import of fuels from overseas, as we have shown.

In 2023 the UK returned to being a net electricity importer as total imports rose to a record 33.3 TWh and total exports fell back to 9.5 TWh, giving net imports of 23.8 TWh.

Observations

What happens if other countries turn off the UK’s power? It has already happened

Some readers may feel we are being alarmist in this report. Just how likely is it that another country would simply stop supplying us with power? Well, this has already happened.

In 2022, the French had a problem. According to Ed Milliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, there were “widespread outages” amongst the ageing French network of nuclear power stations. This was apparently as a result of years of failing to maintain them. The consequence was that France – the largest supplier of electricity via cable to the UK - turned off the switch.

It is therefore perfectly possible that one of the UK’s suppliers might turn off or suspend its power supplies for its own reasons. Then on top of this there is the question of what happens if another country imposes undue influence over the UK, with an implied threat to its supplies to us.

The reasons for this reliance are down to Net Zero

For years successive governments have been closing down coal mines and refusing to give permissions for exploration to the oil and gas companies. The coal industry in the UK is now virtually non-existent and – believe it or not – we are now importing all the coal the country still needs. And despite sitting on enormous oil and gas reserves, we prefer to import from overseas and give the jobs - and the carbon footprint - to them.

Overall, it seems that the rush for Net Zero has meant some rash decisions by government that have left our country highly vulnerable.

In yesterday’s report we showed how the UK was importing a significant element of emissions which are embedded in the goods we buy. In today’s report we are once again seeing how the UK is in effect exporting its emissions in order to have an ever-cleaner international record on reducing its ‘carbon footprint’. These other countries report the emissions in their own figures, leaving the UK looking greener, but the reality is that we are ultimately responsible for using those fuel supplies and this includes the emissions that went into producing and supplying them.

Quite why the impoverishment of our nation in pursuing these grand ambitions is not a much more argued matter is something we must leave to readers. The simple fact is that we’re offshoring our energy production to look good on the international stage and incurring massive risks in doing so.

Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.

[ Sources: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, annual statistics ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 07 Feb 2025

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If other countries stopped supplying the UK with fuels and electricity we would be on a 3-day week Most readers will have been aware that the UK Sending electricity to France but France won’t take its migrants. Maslov’s hierarchy of needs

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Reader Comments 21

1. LuxuryBalloon , Friday, February 07, 2025, 09:50:

Our reliance on fuel/power from other countries has gone up, not down, since Brexit.
I am not convinced that the coal mine closures of the 1980s were part of Mrs Thatcher’s green eco-strategy.

2. Jon Kelly , Friday, February 07, 2025, 10:16:

It’s not if we have blackouts but when. Every year we get high pressures systems that lock us in with cloud and no wind, and these condition can affect neighbouring countries and last for weeks. Solar and wind turbines become useless and supply has to come from overseas or other form of power. It is only a matter of time before the countries that supply us also find their green energy is offline. Then we are stuffed. I’m 100% in favour of green energy but this rush to net zero is a disaster on many levels. We are doubling down on outdated technology that will have to be replaced in a few years.

3. NH , Friday, February 07, 2025, 11:03:

1.LB
UK Coal production declined very little when Margert Thatcher was PM (approx. -20%). The major declines were in the 60's and 70's when Labour was mainly in charge and then there were further rapid declines when Major (Cons) and Blair (Labour) were governing.
.
Have you not heard of the EU energy crisis. The EU is still importing record amounts of LNG from Russia. The French energy company Total is still operating in Russia and is importing vast amounts of LNG Gas from Russia into France. The UK has refused to buy Russian LNG because we do not want to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

4. Gazzablack , Friday, February 07, 2025, 11:13:

1, ,LB
.
Just to note LB.
.
The Labour government of the 70's closed more mines than Thatcher's government.

5. terence patrick hewett , Friday, February 07, 2025, 11:42:

Some things never change. The Brits still like to talk about the weather.

6. Sparky , Friday, February 07, 2025, 18:12:

The UK is doing OK, 30% of our energy is wind alone, 40% from renewables, the more independent we become the better.
.
We’re importing from France and Norway, France has a high level of nuclear, Norway has high level of Hydro and wind.
.
Re pit closures, between 84 and 97, 129 pits were closed, after 97, 10 were closed.

7. NH , Friday, February 07, 2025, 19:07:

6. Sp.
What do we do when it's not windy ?
.
It's not about the number of pits it's about the coal produced. Most of pits that closed very small, very old and inefficient. They were replaced with modern huge coal complexes. During the Thatcher period UK coal production was high with very little imports. During the Blair period imports increased and within a few years imports exceeded UK production by a significant margin.

8. Sparky , Friday, February 07, 2025, 19:48:

7 NH. But the sulphurous coal under the UK was producing acid rain killing lakes in Europe. The UK is well placed for wind farms, we’ve got lots of wind, we’re full of it!

9. Gazzablack , Saturday, February 08, 2025, 00:04:

8, sparkless
.
Well YOU'RE certainly full of something.
.
You can only generate energy from wind when there's wind
If it's windy when you don't need the energy you cannot store that energy for later.
You'd need batteries covering the entire landmass of the UK to store it, and even then that wouldn't enough.
.
And if it's too windy the wind turbines have to be turned off to prevent their self destruction.
A damning new report has revealed that Britons have shelled out an absurd £1 billion to temporarily shut down wind turbines in 2024 alone.
They often have to be turned off to protect the National Grid from energy surges.
.
Moreover sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), the most powerful greenhouse gas known to man, which is widely used in the electrical industry to prevent accidents and short cicuits has been increasingly leaking into the atmosphere.
.
SF6 is 23,500 times more warming than carbon dkoxide

10. Sparky , Saturday, February 08, 2025, 09:38:

9 G. Nice climate change sceptical try at deflecting with your SF6 comment. Yes there is an issue but like CFC’s government should legislate to stop its impact. As a proportion of the main greenhouse gases of CO2 and Methane it’s tiny.
.
Yes wind doesn’t blow all the time, it’s not the only answer it’s got to be one of many but it’s relatively quick to get up and running. The uk has a massive coast line, tidal power is small but could be part of the answer. Interesting development last week in Cornwall of a company using hydro.
.
Nuclear also, EDF, French State owned operator has agreed to keep current nuclear sites open that were to close. (UK rescued by the French!!!). Nuclear takes years. Hinckley started in 2010 but won’t produce energy until 2030. Sizewell is due to start with energy Starting in mid 2030’s
.
Fracking which JR above is probably referring to but doesn’t mention was stopped in 2019 when he was MP, now being sealed due to earthquakes related to the activity.
.
The UK housing stock is the most energy inefficient in Europe.
.
We should aim to be energy independent and renewables must be part of the answer. However climate action does feel fruitless when Trump is “drill baby drill” and China and India are opening fossil fuel power plants.

21 comments, page 1 of 3

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