Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 18 May 2022.
Thank you very much, Joyce—I couldn't agree more. There's a need for a planned grid; there's a need for a grid planned for a different scale of attachment to that grid as well. One of the things we're very proud of doing here in Wales, of course, is having the Homes as Power Stations initiative. This is about retrofitting homes so that they come up to the best possible standard, reduce fuel poverty, reduce energy demand and consumption—both of those parts of the equation are absolutely essential—and can also be put into a position where they can take advantage of the renewable electricity supplies that the communities of Wales will host, because their homes are able to be retrofitted properly. That comes out of our approach, which is the pptimised retrofit programme, which, as all Members will know, because I've talked about it a lot in this Chamber, is looking at what tech works for what kind of house in Wales, because one size does not fit all by any means. Then, it will enable us to work with the energy companies to use things like community benefits and community ownership to bring those houses up to standard. It's a win-win for the energy companies because then they'll have more customers for their energy that can be used in that clean and efficient way. So, all our programmes—the Warm Homes programme and all the others, our innovative housing programme and our energy programme—are all designed to produce a number of those solutions that make up the fit-for-the-future grid.