7. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to facilitate local renewable energy projects in Mid and West Wales? OQ58915

Diolch, Cefin. As we move towards a more localised, renewables-based energy system, we are taking steps to ensure that the wealth from renewable energy projects remains in Wales. We are building on our support for communities and public bodies, developing additional offers for local businesses and supporting energy plans to highlight local opportunities.

Thank you very much. The energy crisis—which has been made worse, of course, by the war in Ukraine—has emphasised the need in Wales to be far more resilient in terms of producing our own energy. The Welsh Government is committed to producing 70 per cent of electricity in Wales through renewable means by 2030, and I welcome that very much, and the emphasis on local ownership is part of this, and mid and west Wales has incredible potential to contribute to reaching that target. However, as has been noted in a recent report by the Welsh Affairs Committee, the national grid capacity in Wales—and I quote, 'has been limited significantly'. This is very frustrating, of course. For example, it's a barrier to farmers in the Elenydd area to move forward with decarbonisation plans; it endangers more fundamental developments in the Celtic sea. So, what discussions have you had with UK Government to improve grid capacity so that communities and businesses in Wales can move ahead with their renewable energy projects?

Diolch, Cefin. Yes, a very important point. So, we have 897 MW of locally owned renewable electricity and heat capacity in Wales in 2021, which was 90 per cent of the way towards our 1 GW target for 2030, which is really good news. We've got a total of 2,201 new renewable projects commissioned across mid Wales and the Swansea bay city region in 2021. They represent a capacity increase of 31.5 MW and comprise mostly small scale and domestic installations, exactly as you said. We've been supporting a wide range of community and publicly owned renewable projects which are around 4.8 MW of capacity. I'm telling you these things because I don't want a doom and gloom effect for this industry, because I think it's pretty vibrant and people are really interested in it, and this kind of diversified community energy is very important to energy security, of course. But there's no doubt at all that the grid is a limiting factor. As I've said in this Chamber a number of times, and it still remains the case, I'm very pleased to say that the UK Government has belatedly understood the need to plan the grid. We have a process in place now to put a planned grid in place, a higher network operator arrangement, and we've got a lot of work going on to understand how and where that will be, what needs to be upgraded.

A lot hinges on a pipeline project that will be put from north to south Wales to connect the two offshore wind projects, both the fixed offshore wind and what we hope will be an enormous project of floating wind in the Celtic sea. The exact route of that pipeline is up for consideration. I have officials very much involved in that and I'll be meeting the energy Minister again soon. I've already had a really good encounter with the energy Minister, to be fair, so I think they are on this page at last. The big issue for us will be to make sure that we get the new grid we need coming down through the middle of Wales, which we absolutely do need, and that we have that in a way that allows the connections in, but we also need the grid strengthened right across south Wales and in north Wales. It's not good enough to say, 'Well, those two bits are all right'; they are not. I have to tell you that, if you live where I live in Swansea, you get brownouts quite a lot. So, we need the existing grid to be strengthened and we need the incoming energy from the new Celtic sea and from the huge investment in the north-Wales coastline to benefit the people of Wales. I want that energy to come here. I don't want it to go to Devon or the Republic of Ireland or into Liverpool or somewhere. So, we've been working very hard to make sure that that stays on track and that we get the right level of consultation and involvement in Wales, and so far so good, but watch this space.

Minister, I agree with much of what you say there, so it would be great if you would join us on Tuesday evening, because Cefin and myself, Jane Dodds and Joyce Watson are hosting a reception on Tuesday evening here at the Senedd entitled the 'Haven Waterway Future Energy Cluster Reception', focusing on floating offshore wind and the opportunities available to us in Pembrokeshire, specifically on the Haven Waterway. 

In agreeing with what you've said so far, I'd be interested to know, given that we require additional infrastructure, what discussions you're having with NRW and local authorities, when it comes to the planning for this infrastructure on land, that they have the funds available, the resources available, to make sure that they're done in a timely manner. Diolch. 

Sorry, I have absolutely no idea whether I'm the Senedd next Tuesday, but, if I am, I'll happily come along. Absolutely, but we've got to do it in the right order. So, we absolutely will want to make sure that the planning arrangements are in place, but, depending on the level that we're talking about, it might be a nationally significant infrastructure development, so it might be the UK Government that's consenting some of this stuff. The 'might be' is the important bit, isn't it, because we need to understand exactly what's being planned for, when it's being planned for, and when it will come on stream in order to get—forgive the colloquialism—our ducks in a row. So, we're very keen to make sure that the Celtic sea projects, the floating wind projects in particular, use the wealth of experience and opportunity that there is in all of the south Wales and north Wales ports, that we get the actual infrastructure build here in Wales, not just the maintenance contracts, and we actually get the wealth from the project coming here, and, in particular, we get the energy input here so that we do get the strengthening of the grid, which would then, of course, allow all of the other projects that we've got, which we know are ready to go, including all our Homes as Power Stations and all the rest of it.

So, I can assure you that all of that is very much on the table. Vaughan Gething and myself have met the Crown Estate and the energy Minister a number of times. There are a number of fingers in the pie at the moment. We've spoken to all the ports and the port authorities and so on, so we're very much in the same space as you, and what we need to do now is just make sure that we stay ahead of that game so that we get the investment we want.