8. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the Welsh Government plans for energy targets from community-owned energy generation projects in Wales? OAQ(5)0114(ERA)

Thank you. I will be setting ambitious targets for renewable energy. We are working with stakeholders to consider what aspects energy targets might cover. I believe community and locally owned energy projects are important, as we want to see projects retaining economic and social benefit in Wales.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that reply. I’m aware of an NRW tender for a single turbine project in south Wales, which is an ideal scale, really, for a community project. The criteria for the tender really are prohibitive for community projects at that scale, requiring track record of delivery and several years’ worth of accounts. I obviously understand the need for due diligence and for there to be appropriate levels of assurance but I note that in the tender, there’s a reference to community benefits being expressed in pounds, which seemed to me to show the limited approach of that. Does she agree with me that we need to try and find ways, consistent with the need for assurance, for these small-scale projects to be genuinely accessible to community energy production?

Absolutely, and we’ve continued to encourage NRW to create the maximum possible local benefit from the estate, and we offer support under the local energy service to enable community developers to deliver on these opportunities. I am aware that there have been groups, particularly co-operatives, that have come forward and because they haven’t got that sort of historical, financial history, it has led to issues. I know that Value Wales have been looking at these specific issues and I have asked NRW to link up with them to see what more can be done in that area.

The Government has committed, from this April onwards, I believe, to ensuring that 100 per cent of energy in the public sector comes from renewable sources. Would it be possible to take a step further and have a target for the whole of Wales, and ensure that 100 per cent of all of our energy needs are provided from renewable sources within 20 years?

Yes, it’s certainly something that we can look at. We’ve got a debate next Tuesday, Presiding Officer, in Government time, around this and targets, et cetera. I was very pleased to see that target coming forward from next month and 50 per cent of that energy will come from Wales, initially. I do think we need to be very ambitious—pragmatic and realistic, but I think we have to be very ambitious—and I’m very happy to look at what the Member suggests.

Cabinet Secretary, we’ll be discussing the foundational economy in a debate later, and it seems to me that community energy projects and the whole greening of the Welsh and British economy are areas where we could really have great advances that would empower local people very considerably.

Yes, I absolutely agree with the Member. I think it’s really important that we do all we can to make sure the process isn’t as difficult as, perhaps, it’s been at times. Certainly, when I’ve met with groups that have got these community energy schemes off the ground, they’ve needed incredible tenacity and patience and I think we need to do all we can to support them. I think we have put a lot of resources into doing that, not just financial, but also that support that’s so needed.