Tidal Energy in South Wales West

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:33 pm on 14 May 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:33, 14 May 2019

Well, Llywydd, I understand the point that Suzy Davies is making, and I've heard arguments made by those involved in the scheme in Swansea that the way to deal with the failure of the UK Government to have a contract-for-difference approach to the electricity that will be produced by any lagoon is to spread the cost of that amongst a large number of public and private sector buyers of that electricity. And I understand the case that they are making. But, surely, the real answer is that the UK Government should recognise that this was always to be a demonstration project, that it is inevitable in nascent technologies that the price of electricity produced would be higher than it otherwise would be in the marketplace, and, just as previous Governments were willing to do in the fields of solar and wind, that they must find a tariff for marine energy—not simply tidal lagoon technology, but marine energy—that allows those new technologies to be attempted and, as we would see it, to thrive here in Wales. That's the right way to do it. Spreading the cost amongst public and private sector buyers here in Wales will only go so far, and will, in the end, result in Welsh citizens having to subsidise a cost that always ought to have been the responsibility of the UK Government.