4. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Renewable Energy Targets

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 24 January 2023.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:13, 24 January 2023

Thank you, Alun. I absolutely agree with the last point. The big issue there is to make sure that the community has the renewable energy it wants and needs, but also there’s a huge piece there about not just community benefits, but proper community ownership. So, we are very keen indeed to facilitate any company that’s building an onshore windfarm—I hope we can do this with floating wind as well, but certainly onshore—to actually build turbines directly for community ownership. So, we can facilitate, via the Development Bank for Wales, local people having an actual share in that. That will mean they get a direct benefit in their energy bills, which is not permissible under the community benefits scheme, and also means that we can further a decarbonisation agenda, so we can actually get people’s bills right down. I think that has a fundamental effect on the amount of renewables that people want to see around them, if I’m honest.

The other big piece for me is we often have—I don’t know that your community’s in this particular place—communities that can see one or two or more windfarms out their windows who are on off-grid oil. We absolutely need to find a way to get those communities to be able to connect directly into the renewable electricity: (a) to decarbonise, (b) to get that community buy-in you talked about, and (c) how frustrating is that? That you’ve got that wealth of opportunity on your doorstep and you can’t get to it. Many of the communities that I serve and that Rebecca Evans serves are in exactly that position, and I’d imagine a number of colleagues around the Chamber are in that position, so we’re really keen to make sure that we spread out the largesse, if you like, and this community ownership piece is a really big part of that. So, we're very keen indeed to make sure that, as the state-owned developer rolls out, these exemplar sites—where we build turbines specifically for the community to own and we put up the price first, and we allow the community to buy into it over a very, very long period of time so that it's accessible to all income levels—really make a difference as those profits start to come into communities. 

And then on the other two pieces, I completely agree with you around the access to funding, access to technology advice and access to corporate advice. I don't want to pre-announce the Ynni Cymru co-operation agreement talks that we're having, but they're progressing very nicely and I hope to be able to make an announcement soon that will cover off a number of those heads.