4. Will the Minister make a statement on the opportunities presented by the development of floating offshore wind power in Wales? OQ58727

Floating offshore wind has the potential to contribute significantly to Wales and Great Britain’s future net-zero energy system and is a fantastic opportunity to bring social and economic benefits to our coastal communities. We are working closely with industry, the Crown Estate and the UK Government to make this a reality.

I agree with you, Deputy Minister, that the opportunities presented by floating offshore wind are enormous. As you know, I am a supporter of the transformational bid for the Celtic free port, which I believe would play a huge role in developing a greener and more sustainable future here in Wales. Of course, it's vital that all marine development projects are strategically placed to protect marine species and support ocean recovery. Wales's first floating offshore wind farm, project Erebus, is being developed 40 km off the coast of Pembrokeshire. The developers, Blue Gem Wind, who I've met on a number of occasions, submitted their planning consent in December 2021 with a clear ask for a consent decision in 12 months to enable the project to compete in the next contracts for difference allocation round. Therefore, Deputy Minister, what assurances can you give to Erebus and all other potential floating offshore wind projects that decisions over consents will be given in a timely manner in order to enable projects to progress and so they don't actually miss out on valuable funding opportunities in the future?

The Member may remember that, just under a year ago, I led a deep dive into renewables to look at what barriers were in the way of us achieving our ambitious targets. One of the recommendations we came up with there was an end-to-end review—if a deep dive can come up with an end-to-end review; you know what I mean, we're lost in jargon here—of the consenting process from beginning to end, to look at what was frustrating developers, and what was causing delays, and was there a case for example on looking at an evidence base collaboratively, which would save individual developers having to do it each time. This project was one of the ones that we looked at as part of that process. We've had the results of the end-to-end review, and we're now working through those in detail to see with NRW what we can implement to help schemes like this in the future. On this specific project, we are working with the project developers on the process for a marine licence. You'll understand that, as we have a role in the appeals process, I can't comment any further on it, but our officials are doing what they can, and of course, the developers also need to do what they can to meet the deadline that they've asked us to meet. 

There's been much focus, of course, on floating offshore wind. It feels a bit like it's the flavour of the month, but it's hugely valid, of course—nobody is challenging that—particularly with the focus on the Celtic sea. But we mustn't forget, of course, there's still huge potential to be realised from fixed-base turbines in the Irish sea. I see that as very much a key driver for the north Wales economy, particularly focused around developing a strong offshore wind presence at Holyhead. So, can you tell us what the Welsh Government's aspirations are in relation to the Irish sea, particularly post the Crown Estate's round 4 leasing, and what your Government is doing to continually promote those opportunities in terms of fixed-base turbines, particularly in the Irish sea?

He's right, and we're interested in all opportunities to improve renewables capacity. One of the things we're also keen on is to make sure we have a supply chain and a benefit to the local economy, both through ownership and through manufacture. I've never found it fathomable why we are having German pension funds invested in wind farms off north Wales when we're not benefiting directly from the profit ourselves. That's one of the reasons why we've announced the creation of an energy company for Wales, to exploit the opportunities on the Natural Resources Wales estate. We are also—along with Plaid Cymru—working on a proposal for community energy. So, there is much work going on to exploit this. What we need to work closely with the UK Government on is an industrial strategy to go alongside the renewable plans. I raised this with Greg Hands when he was energy Minister, and this is something the industry themselves are keen on, because there is significant both energy potential but also employment potential if we get this right.