16:00 Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)

Wales currently produces about 22,000 GWh of energy a year and consumes about 18,000 GW. We export approximately 4,000 GWh to England, but that figure is due to grow because of the abundant opportunities provided by the sea and the wind, and by solar energy. Essentially, I want to discuss the need to have the right balance between green energy and green tourism, with future tourism and economic opportunities paying due respect to our seascape and landscape.

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16:12 The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Michael Fallon)

The Minister mentions the large number of projects in the pipeline. Whenever I have asked whether the Department of Energy and Climate Change has any central records of the number of biomass applications, I am always told that only local authorities know about the applications. It concerns me that we may be reaching a situation in which we are no longer able to supply our biomass plants from local sources, which I find acceptable, and that we end up importing from much less acceptable sources, which may be deforesting the world. Can his Department set up a register so that we have some idea about where we are running to in the future, otherwise we may find that we have biomass plants that can be sourced only from unacceptable sources, which would be a bad place to be?

As I was saying, Wales is now seeing huge investment in its renewable energy infrastructure. Wales already accounts for around 6% of overall UK renewables. Since 2010, £1.3 billion of investment has been announced in renewable generation in Wales, potentially supporting around 2,000 jobs.

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