To ask His Majesty’s Government how they are working across departmental boundaries to ensure that the effectiveness of investments in clean energy is being maximised.
Driving investment into UK clean energy is a priority for this Government to improve energy security, reduce emissions and boost jobs and growth across the country. We are backing our targets and ambitions with policy and targeted funding. Since March 2021, the Government have committed £30 billion of investment in domestic green policies. The policies are already expected to drive an unprecedented £100 billion of private investment and to support 480,000 jobs by 2030.
I thank the Minister for his response. There are a number of supplementary questions I could ask around the lack of joined-up government on clean energy investments, but the one on which I am keen to hear more is what we will do with excess clean electricity to have maximum effect for reaching our environmental goals. Specifically, how will we use excess electricity to create hydrogen for fertilisers? We talk a lot about hydrogen being used in the home for heating, which I do not think is a good idea, or hydrogen for transport, but hydrogen has a use in fertiliser production. If Defra and BEIS work together, we could become at the forefront of that industry of clean, green, fertiliser production at a time when prices are sky-high and we need alternatives.
The noble Baroness makes a very good point. One of the policy challenges we will have is how to use some of what she refers to as excess clean energy. With renewables being intermittent, there are times with large amounts of available spare electricity and other times when there is not enough. Hydrogen could clearly play a key role in that, and one of the uses of that excess electricity is to produce clean hydrogen.
My Lords, this year’s Climate Change Committee report to Parliament on climate adaptation found that planning for global warming levels of 2 degrees centigrade was not happening, and that the UK’s energy, water, digital and transport providers are struggling to take account of climate-related risks to connected infrastructure systems, which could cause cascading failures. When do the Government intend to act on the priorities identified by the Climate Change Committee, particularly in addressing risks to critical energy infrastructure?
Of course, we liaise very closely with the Climate Change Committee. There is a huge amount of investment going into energy infrastructure. I have referred in the House before to the amount of change that will happen in our energy infrastructure as we diversify the grid. My noble friend makes a good point.
Does the noble Lord agree that cleaning up energy is just as important as clean energy? As he knows, I have an interest in carbon capture and storage. So many times over the past few years has the investment community been marched up to the top of the hill and then disbanded. Does he agree with me that a strong signal needs to be given to that community that carbon capture, utilisation and storage is a key part, going forward, of clean energy?
My Lords, one of the main failures of departmental co-operation is the paucity of recharging points for EVs in rural areas. There are absolute wastelands. Is the Minister’s department, which is in charge of decarbonisation, really pushing the Department for Transport to makes sure that the distribution of charging points is effective, large and in rural areas?
As the noble Lord correctly says, the rolling out of charging points is the responsibility of the DfT, but I know that it has an extensive programme of grant support. Clearly some local authorities perform better than others but, if we are to continue the rollout of electric cars, an extensive network of charging points is vital.
My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. I ask the Minister to confirm that he agrees that clean energy includes nuclear energy, and that the failure of wind and solar power to make any real contribution in current extremely cold conditions strengthens the case to accelerate plans to bring forward commercial schemes to deploy SMR technologies, including Japan’s high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, whose demonstrator has been running safely for more than 10 years.
Without getting into supporting particular types of technology, I certainly agree with my noble friend that the rollout of nuclear is particularly important. It offers large-scale carbon-free electricity, which is why we recently announced our investment in Sizewell C.
My Lords, what assessment have the Government made of their ability to meet the 2030 offshore wind targets of 50 gigawatts? There are a number of challenges here: the change in macroeconomic conditions; higher interest rates; and competition in global supply chains.
The noble Lord makes a very good point. We have been particularly successful in rolling out offshore wind in this country. I have made the point before that we have by far the largest rollout in Europe. In fact, so successful have we been that the rest of Europe is now trying to copy us, which of course will challenge supply chains. But we are working very closely with all the suppliers, many of which are expanding their production in the UK to make sure that we can successfully meet our ambitious target.
My Lords, the Government announced earlier this year that their main form of renewable investment—contracts for difference—would move to more frequent allocation rounds, beginning next year. This is welcome, as we have said; but what consideration have the Government given to complementing this with the voluntary contracts for difference process for existing generators, which would grant generators longer-term revenue certainty and safeguard consumers from further price rises?
The noble Baroness is right that the contracts for difference scheme has been extremely successful. Many of the generators are now paying back into the system because the strike price is below the market price. We will roll out as many additional CfD schemes as we can in future years.