6. Plaid Cymru Debate: The energy sector and the climate and nature emergencies

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:31 pm on 13 October 2021.

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Photo of Sam Rowlands Sam Rowlands Conservative 4:31, 13 October 2021

Thank you to Plaid Cymru for tabling this important and timely debate today, which clearly has a broad reach in terms of its title—there are all sorts of avenues that Members could go down in relation to this debate today.

I would also like to welcome and certainly support the first section of the motion from Plaid Cymru, which seeks to note all of the good work that has taken place in various organisations and in various parts of the country as well. I'm going to try and keep my contribution as practical and as about delivery as possible.

When it comes to green energy solutions, for me, there are three pertinent points that I'll also make my contribution focus on. And the first, I think, which we need to discuss and continue to consider, is the range of energy solutions that we would want to see in Wales. It's been clear, hasn't it, in recent weeks and months, that perhaps we've had too many of our eggs in one green energy basket, which has caused us to run into trouble, because we've seen, haven't we, that the lack of wind through September means that there is less energy available for us to use?

I think we should be considering, as parliamentarians, the focus on energy schemes that seem to be cheap in terms of their initial installation and initial costs, but we really do need to consider: are they consistent? Are they reliable? What is the macro impact of those schemes that have been put in place in the past and what other technologies should we be looking to support in the future? My colleague for Aberconwy mentioned the tidal and energy scheme, which I know Mr Hedges also brought up in terms of an intervention, but there are schemes like tidal energy—technologies like that—that can provide reliable, predictable energy for us in the future. I'll take an intervention.