"The pipeline is drying up. Our members say it is hard to close projects," Business Council for Sustainable Energy executive director Ric Brazzale told the newspaper.

By January this year, construction had begun on 85 projects with a capacity of 907MW of renewable generation. But once those projects were completed, growth would slow dramatically, according to Brazzale.

A recent Datamonitor survey of more than 2,000 households found 81% of customers would switch to green energy if prices were the same, but only 9% would be attracted if the prices were 6% higher than their current costs, Energy business Review Online reported this week.

With only a very small share of consumers prepared to pay a significant premium for green energy, utilities offering green electricity schemes have to find options that minimise price premiums.