Energy Bill

I begin by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson) both for tabling the new clause and for the immensely authoritative way in which he introduced it. He spoke about the importance of having Lily Allen and other celebrity endorsement. For many people, however, he is the star of this debate—[Hon. Members: ““Hear, hear.””] He has been the driving force, putting the issue on the agenda so that it is no longer peripheral but absolutely mainstream to the whole energy debate. As the hon. Gentleman said, we need to see the issue against the background of the immense challenge we face. If we are to come close to the European target of getting 20 per cent. of our energy from renewables by 2020, it translates into securing about 40 per cent. of our electricity generation from renewables. That is an immense challenge, but given our overall needs for renewable energy, not just electricity, it is a huge mountain that we have to climb. If we are to succeed, we need every bit of help we can get. It means having onshore and offshore wind; it means exploring the potential of the Severn barrage. On Monday, I was looking at the barrage in La Rance in France to see what lessons we can learn from it. We need to look into biomass, solar, thermal and ground sources, air source and heat pumps, and we need to look fundamentally at microgeneration. Our vision should be to make as many households as possible not consumers but generators of electricity. That is the nub of the whole debate. Ten years ago, the UK and Germany started from the same low base in respect of generating electricity from renewables. Today, whereas we get 2 per cent. of our energy from renewables, Germany gets 8.5 per cent. That was a 1 per cent. increase in just one year in the amount of energy Germany gets from renewables—the same amount that we got over a 10-year period. The key to Germany's success was the adoption of feed-in tariffs, which helped to drive the programme forward. There should be no doubt that the issue is of interest to more people than just politicians. There is widespread political interest in it, but all the experts in the sector looking at the issue from outside are also pushing in this direction. Today, Terry Barker, director of the Cambridge centre for climate change, which is engaged in mitigation research, and other experts published a letter in the Financial Times. It says:"““The policies of the UK government to support the development of renewable energy have seen it become one of the worst-performing countries in Europe and stand no chance of getting the UK to meeting its share of the EU target.""We urge the government to adopt a feed-in tariff policy, which has proved so successful in other countries.””" The Energy Saving Trust, set up by the Government, has said:"““We would welcome enabling measures in the Bill to introduce a feed in tariff and signal the Government's positive approach to encouraging domestic microgeneration.””" Solarcentury, which has campaigned effectively on the issue, has said:"““Throughout Europe, renewable energy feed-in tariffs are a proven and cost effective measure for promoting the rapid uptake of wind, solar, biomass and other technologies. Feed-in tariffs are the principal support mechanism for renewable energy in 22 European countries.””" The National Farmers Union has also given us advice and support. The key point is that the new clause does not adopt a prescriptive approach. It is an enabling measure which allows the fundamental decisions to be made elsewhere, and by the Minister in due course. A submission that we received from the Renewable Energy Association states:"““At this stage Clause 4 only commits the Secretary of State to the establishment of a reward scheme for metered renewable energy and to do so within one year. The Clause leaves open until after consultation the detail of how a metered UK tariff would work, which scale and types of renewable technology would qualify and the level of any Tariff.""It is intended that the Tariff works alongside the Renewable Obligation””," so we need not be specific at this stage.