Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:36 pm on 6 June 2018.
May I thank the Member for his intervention? I'm probably the understudy today. Look, I said at the outset of the debate that this raises many interesting and innovative and creative ideas, and I think it's for all of us to take that debate forward to see how Wales can lead the way in terms of how we approach renewable energy and energy sources in the future.
If I move on to community projects, given the interest in that area, our Local Energy service has pioneered an approach of direct loans to projects that were deemed too risky by the commercial lenders, enabling the construction of community-owned generation, including Awel Aman Tawe’s windfarm, and bringing other renewable developments into community ownership. Our support has enabled community groups to become socially focused developers in regions across Wales. I think concern was raised in terms of how community groups can be sure they aren’t, for want of a better phrase than the one Simon Thomas used, ripped off. The Welsh Government does support community energy projects directly with technical and commercial expertise, and we already have done so through our Local Energy service to help them to understand the commercial and financial models and make decisions on this basis. Indeed, Siân Gwenllian mentioned three community projects in her contribution, all of which, I understand, have had Welsh Government support.
My colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs has set a target for 70 per cent of the electricity consumed in Wales to be from renewable sources by 2030. She also set a target for 1 GW of renewable electricity capacity in Wales to be locally owned by 2030, and an expectation for all new renewable energy projects coming forward from 2020 to have an element of local ownership. We believe that local ownership retains benefit locally. We recently undertook a call for evidence to underpin this position and better understand what is needed to help people in Wales to become more energy independent. We’ll be publishing the responses this summer.
I’m aware I’m running out of time now, so I will quickly round up, but it will be no surprise to Members on the benches opposite that we are working with Plaid Cymru on the energy atlas, and we think that this will be core to delivering the right energy future for Wales, providing evidence and insight to support local decision makers to get on and make things happen. We believe that our focus on support for innovation and local action is the right way to position Wales for a prosperous energy future.