Mr Hurd

Few countries, certainly in Europe, have done more than we have to expand renewable energy electricity capacity since 2010, and the low-carbon economy sector now employs over 220,000 people. The hon. Lady questions our continued commitment to renewable energy; I refer her to the public commitment to forthcoming auctions to support the less mature renewable technologies.

[Source]

Dr Monaghan

Given that Scotland’s renewable energy will be cheaper than that produced at Hinkley by the time it is complete and that Brexit is already pushing up the build costs of these reactors in an environment where the UK Government have unilaterally decided to abandon the protection of Euratom, will you scrap the costly and inefficient nuclear obsession in favour of a low-carbon future?

[Source]

Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con)

Colleagues in both Houses have signed an offshore blade made by MHI Vestas on the Isle of Wight, which is also arranging a schools outreach programme. Does my hon. Friend agree that this sort of initiative raises awareness of how low-carbon renewable energy technology can ensure that the UK reaches its potential of exporting its first-class engineering and advanced manufacturing worldwide?

[Source]

Mr Hurd

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her election to the Select Committee, and she is absolutely right: energy innovation is critical to both our future ability to reduce the cost of decarbonisation and unlocking the industrial opportunities inside the low-carbon energy sector. We are reviewing our plans in relation to our energy innovation portfolio. The nuclear industry is a very important part of those plans, and I hope we will have something to say very shortly.

[Source]

Barry Gardiner (Labour)

Last week, the Budget failed to stop the 800% rise in business rates for companies that have installed solar panels. This week, research published in the journal Nature Energy states that to achieve our targets set out in the Paris agreement we need to set out longer-term plans beyond 2050, yet the Government have now dithered for five years and still refuse to publish their own implementation plan, even up to 2030. How does the Minister propose to increase our low-carbon exports when he cannot even set out how we will achieve our medium-term climate targets?

[Source]

Mr Hurd

I thank my hon. Friend for pointing out how much progress we are making at the local level as well as nationally on the transition to green power. This has been facilitated by substantial investment through public subsidies and, as we look to encourage the deployment of renewable energy through competitive markets—preferably subsidy free—we are looking at what else we can do to facilitate that using the tools available to the Government.

[Source]

Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)

Our concern on Hinkley is that the Government appear to be stacking the deck in favour of nuclear power over the much cheaper renewable energy. The strike price for Hinkley was £92.50 in 2012, compared with a much lower £82.50 for onshore wind in 2015, yet in the value-for-money assessment the Government assume a £90 strike price for onshore wind. Why are they inflating the price for renewables in comparison to Hinkley?

[Source]