5. Statement by the Minister for Economy: Offshore Marine Energy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:57 pm on 17 May 2022.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:57, 17 May 2022

Thank you for the questions. I think they're in three or four broad categories. On tidal energy, yes, we think that Wales has a real opportunity still to be at the forefront of an emerging sector. It is a matter of well-understood regret from this Government's point of view that the Swansea lagoon has not been supported previously, including following a review by a former Conservative energy Minister, who described it as a 'no regrets' project. We still need to be able to deploy a significant tidal project to understand and to learn from that about the further deployment and economic advantage that can be gained as well as, of course, the energy generation from it. We're interested in the Blue Eden project that Swansea council are leading the engagement with developers on. They appear to have a private investor who's prepared to do that. The challenge for us is the scale of each project, as you identified. We do think that there should be further powers with this Government in terms of consenting. We've also been clear about our view that we would rather have further powers on the Crown Estate. None of these things are a surprise and have been said on many occasions by the First Minister, by myself, and indeed the climate change Minister, on a regular basis.

However, what we want to do is to maximise the opportunity we have within our current powers to do all that we can in a way that will help to see those first projects take off, because, without the first significant scale project, we're still going to be talking about potential and what if and what may be. We do know that, from a tidal power point of view, we have lots to exploit and lots to look forward to. I certainly want to be in a position where we learn the lessons of what's happened with onshore and fixed offshore wind. The early movers are people who invested early and then took lots of the advantage in both research and development and, indeed, manufacture. I'd much rather that Wales was then exporting that technology and know-how to other parts of the world rather than buying a mature set of technology that someone else has developed and all the economic gain that goes along with that. 

I think that comes back to your point about innovation funding, which was touched on in questions with Paul Davies as well. Given that we have lost money now that we have left the European Union—and it's unarguable that we have less money than we would otherwise have done—our challenge is that, given that we had a funding stream that came from that into the innovation sector here, how we replace that successfully. Now, as I said, the positive is that the UK Government are looking to invest more than £20 billion over a number of years into innovation. The challenge is that if it goes out in the same way that it has done previously—and you've highlighted this—that money will be largely taken up in the golden triangle. And once you start to have a system that repeats itself, well, it's very hard to break in. And the positive aspect of this is that we're not saying, 'Give Wales money because we deserve it.' We're saying, 'Give Wales money because we have excellent research here as well, within our sectors, within our higher education and, indeed, within our business and applied sector as well. So, there's actually a real gain to be made and do it close to where you're going to deploy it as well.' So, I think there are a lot of really sensible and logical advantages in doing that. So, to make real some of the promises that have been made will not just be the right thing from the politics point of view, it will actually be practically the right thing to do from an economic benefit and advantage point of view as well. 

And certainly the Minister for Climate Change and I are very keen to take advantage of Wales being an early mover within these sectors as well. I think we have lots to offer and lots to gain, and the net-zero skills plan will be part of that. But, as I've indicated, we expect to publish that this year. I'm very keen that we get it right. I'd much rather we were in a position to have published it or to give a definitive time for when it will come out now. I can't do that, but what I will do is say that, as soon as we've got it right, we'll publish it, and I'll happily indicate not just to him but to other Members when that plan is expected to be published.