Debates around energy imports normally focus on oil from the Middle East or gas from Russia1<\/a><\/sup>; however, electricity from Europe is becoming ever more significant. In Q3, Britain sourced 5.6 TWh of electricity from abroad, enough to power 7.2 million homes. 60% of this came from France, 30% from the Netherlands and 10% from the island of Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Even though a smaller share comes from Ireland and the Netherlands, they rely heavily on fossil fuels. So much so that Britain\u2019s imports had a 30% higher carbon intensity than locally generated power (314 vs 245 g\/kWh over the last twelve months). It is unclear whether these imports actually raised global CO2<\/sub> emissions though. We could not have increased output from wind, solar, biomass and nuclear instead of importing; the extra electricity would likely have come from coal and gas. Authors:<\/em> Dr Iain Staffell<\/a>, Professor Richard Green<\/a>, Dr Rob Gross<\/a> and Professor Tim Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imports are expected to become a larger part of the mix in future as more links to France, Norway and Denmark are built. National Grid anticipate that we could import 10\u201324% of our electricity in just five years\u2019 time. We need to ensure this supports the continuing decarbonisation of electricity, rather than simply \u2018offshoring\u2019 our emissions.
Britain\u2019s dependence on imported electricity (left). The carbon intensity of British and imported electricity (top-right). The source of Britain\u2019s imported electricity (bottom-right).<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reports.electricinsights.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/04_Importing-electricity-exporting-emissions-1024x674.jpg\")
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