6. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's policies regarding building electricity pylons in Mid and West Wales? OQ59095

Diolch, Cefin. We need a strategic solution to updating our grid infrastructure to achieve our net-zero commitments and give people access to clean heat and transport. National planning policy states our preferred position that new power lines should be underground where possible and expects public engagement to mitigate their impact elsewhere.

Thank you very much, Minister. Yes, I do welcome the Welsh Government's commitment to ensure that the electricity needs of Wales in the future will be met from renewable sources, and that by 2035. But my question is related to how we intend to transmit that electricity across rural areas. Now, as you said, in areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks there is an expectation for these electric cables to be buried underground, but there is no commitment that that should happen in areas outwith those designated areas. Over the past few weeks, I have heard about plans for the construction of new pylons in the Tywi valley—and I have to declare an interest, I do live in that area—to carry cables from mid Wales down to Carmarthenshire. I do say that the area is one of historic significance and beauty, and there are examples in European countries where they have placed cables underground. So, my question, without sounding too much like a Nimby, is whether the Welsh Government will commit to develop and implement a new set, a wider set, of measures with regard to placing electricity cables underground?

Thank you, Cefin. The policy is that electricity transmission cables should be placed underground where possible, not just in designated landscapes, but where possible. Sometimes, it's not possible, even in a designated landscape. We don't anyone digging up our peatlands, for example. So we would expect developers to find the best route. Sometimes, that's not the shortest route, and then a conversation ensues about what the best route is, and by 'best', as I say, I don't mean shortest. The best route is the best environmental route; the best route for the communities that need the electricity. So, we expect the developers to undertake a series of public engagements, both with the communities affected and with the local authorities and with us, about what that best route is, and with the national grid about the connections, and we expect to come to a conclusion about the best route and the need for the electricity in that area. So, it's a complex interweb.

We're also working, and have been for some time, on this new holistic network design process, because we have long believed—for 40-odd years we have believed—that a planned grid is a better grid. So we also work right across Wales in designing a future energy plan, so that we can help the grid design where it needs to be, and then take into account things like where you could underground, what kind of cable, what voltage of cable, all the rest of it, where the sub-station should be, for example. There's a whole series of other things; it's not just about the transmission lines. And we believe, and, I think, probably everyone in here believes, that that plan is a far better way of doing it than each individual developer attempting to connect their particular development in the shortest possible way that they can, which, obviously, there's an economic imperative to do that. So, just to reiterate, therefore, we require the consultation at all levels, we need the grid to step up to the case on this to make sure that it complies with the plan, we need the communities to be involved, and we need to make sure that the electricity is actually the electricity that we need and in the right place for the right thing.

I personally have another goal. I don't want any community in Wales to be able to see a renewable energy facility and not be able to take advantage of it. So, I declare an interest myself here, Llywydd: I can look out of my window at home and see two windfarms, and I'm on off-grid oil. That's a situation that we really need to address. I think the communities are much more able to understand what's going on if they're benefiting directly from it. So, we also need to work on that. 

Question 7, Jane Dodds. Question 7, Jane Dodds, on Ffos-y-Fran. 

That's a no. 

I do apologise.  

Okay. 

Question 7 [OQ59091] not asked.

Question 8, Ken Skates, finally. Ken Skates.