5. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Public Sector Role in the Future Energy System

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:09 pm on 25 October 2022.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:09, 25 October 2022

Thank you, Janet. I think most of the thrust of your contribution there was around the energy efficiency service, which is obviously not what this statement is primarily about. We obviously work with the energy efficiency service to make sure that we can get energy efficiency. You quoted some of the very good stats that we've actually had by way of results there. I'm very pleased to be working with them.

We will also be developing a community energy developer, as part of our co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, who will pull together the community-level energy schemes that we need right around Wales—the small-scale schemes that we need right around Wales. And they will also be a combination of generation of electricity—so from your solar panels, from your small-scale hydro and so on, which I know you're interested in—but also work on the energy efficiency of the buildings that are part of that community project. So, obviously, what we also need to do is reduce demand for the generation of electricity.

What this statement is about, though, is a very large-scale developer owned by the Welsh Government, starting off on Welsh Government land, to take its place in a number of companies already working throughout Wales. Scottish Power, for example, provides, as I know you know, the grid in north Wales. This, acting Presiding Officer, is one of the old cliches come to life: so, the best time to do this was probably about 40 years ago, and the next best time is now. So, here we are—we are doing it. What we are doing as well is inviting a joint venture with private sector companies—I say 'private sector' with inverted commas around it, because most of them are the Swedish national power company, the Scottish national power company, the German national power company, the Danish, you know, these are companies that are already there, so they're not really private sector; they're state-owned operators—to work alongside us to make sure that, in generating the kind of energy that we need right across Wales from all kinds of renewables, although starting on the Welsh Government estate with wind, we return the investment in that, not just in community benefits but the actual investment back to the people of Wales, as those other companies are able to do to their national citizenry. In doing that, we will, of course, be able to redeploy that investment back into energy resilience and into energy efficiency, which are two sides of the same coin—I completely agree with you.

So, I'm glad that you welcome this. It will take us a year to set the company up properly, because this is a major investment strategy, which we must do in order to get our just transition agenda really running. I know that you share our ambition that the people of Wales, in transitioning to a green economy, should not suffer the problems that we suffered in previous industrial revolutions. So, this is the first major step forward in making sure that we secure the wealth of our renewable industry for the people of Wales.