We have had an interesting debate that was kicked off by the noble Lord, Lord Stephen. Before telling us about the need for electricity storage, he told us that, as a Minister in the Scottish Government, he was in favour of moving towards 100% renewables. His speech had a certain revelatory note as though, when he was advocating 100% renewables, he had not really thought about
storage. If you are dealing with renewables, you are of course dealing with interruptibles and you have to have something to fill the gap. Storage has always been one of those things. I find it a bit disturbing that the Scottish Government—of whom my party was a part at the time—signed up to what seems to be a somewhat ill-considered approach to renewables. However, it shows that when something with an element of newness and freshness comes along, it is thought that it must be good; and once its goodness is established, everything is possible. I get the message this afternoon that everything involving storage is good and therefore possible. I happen to be in favour of storage and in favour of a strategy, but if we are going to have a strategy, it means that there will be priorities. If there are priorities, it means that some of the projects now enjoying the cosy embrace of Members of this Committee on both sides may well be cast to the wind.
On the question of cost, the energy industry is saddled with bad investments from the bright ideas bank, but that is something which goes back through history. When the sector was publicly owned, the CEGB had probably the best scientific brains in the energy industry. They would go to civil servants and offer them, for example, nuclear energy—of which I am an enthusiast—saying that it would be too cheap to meter. We have got to be a lot cooler in our enthusiasm. It might well be that the advocates of a strategy find that the strategy turns round and punches them on the nose, knocking out some of their favourite little schemes.
I happen to be something of an enthusiast for the Leighton Buzzard project because it is of a reasonable size and it seems to be technically in order. I have a slight association through an interest in this area, which I have already declared. However, we have to be careful. I favour the concept of a strategy because it will instil a bit of discipline into what I think is the wishful thinking that has prevailed in so much of today’s discussion. I am not sure whether we are going to get very much more in the way of pump storage, as you need to have the terrain and the water. I remember talking years ago to people in the hydro industry in Scotland and they did not think there was really very much more that you could eke out of the Scottish landscape. That might have changed by now, but the point is that we are getting to the small and cuddly bits of technology.
We have all been hounded over the years and, indeed, over the last few months, by people coming and saying, “With a bit of money from the Government, we can change the world and make a fortune for ourselves”. I get a wee bit cynical. Perhaps it is because I have been in this game for far too long and have seen so many of these schemes founder. I want us to have a strategy and I think that we should have storage, but let us not lose our sense of proportion. At the end of the day, we will not be storing that much because it will be the surplus electricity. We will not be generating for storage purposes. It will be a case of storing the extra, the margin and the bonus. Let us keep a sense of proportion so that when a strategy is produced, we are ready for the fact that some folk may be disappointed because they did not get everything they wanted. We have heard already with regard to renewables the
arguments beginning, “Ah, but” and, “It was not really intended like this” or “The nasty Chinese are now undercutting our prices. We must stop them coming in. We must impose taxes in this area because the Germans and the Spaniards have invested in photovoltaics and the like, which are not making the returns that once they did”.
If the Government take on board the spirit of this amendment, produce a strategy in due course, and give it a place within the newly reformed electricity market, let us make sure that that is done on the basis of serious priorities. We should not be pushed by every pressure group or commercial interest that comes along with some half-baked bright idea which, with a few million pounds more of public money, will resolve everything. Often we find that the UK comes to a scheme rather later than other countries, which have spent a lot of money on similar projects and then rejected them. There is a lot to be said for partnering with other countries and companies because they may have done far more research and experienced a lot more of the disappointments that normally arise from research in areas of this nature. We should give the spirit of the amendment a fair wind, but at the same time recognise that this has to be about priorities. We should not chase after every pot of gold at the end of every rainbow we see.