Renewable Energy

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 10 May 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:21, 10 May 2022

Well, Llywydd, this project is only alive because of the funding provided by the Welsh Government to allow Swansea city council, which is the lead public body in relation to the Blue Eden project, to go ahead. When the UK Government pulled the plug on the Swansea bay tidal lagoon, despite the Hendry review, which it set up, telling them that it was a no-regrets investment, the fact that there is a scheme at all is only because, at that point, the Welsh Government stepped in and provided the funding to the city council that has allowed them to find that investor, to work with DST and to come up with the new set of proposals. We continue to stay very closely engaged with the city council to support the work that they have carried out. I agree with what the Member said about the potential for this scheme. The great regret is that it didn't go ahead when it was originally proposed, and at a time when energy security is so high on our minds, we would have been within a few short months of that original lagoon now producing energy that could be used here in Wales. It was a proposal that the Hendry review said the UK Government should carry out. [Interruption.] I'm not denying for a moment—. I don't think I've said anything that suggests that the Welsh Conservatives supported the decision to pull the plug on that idea. We all here wish it had gone ahead. That would have been preferable. The fact that we have a successor scheme is because of investment provided from this Chamber and nowhere else, and we, as I say, stay closely in touch with the city council in Swansea, which has been the driving force behind this latest development.