Energy White Paper

Debate between Lord Sharma and Damian Hinds

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

First, I was on a call with the hon. Lady recently and she acknowledged—through gritted teeth, I think—that she was quite pleased with the UK’s NDC commitment of at least 68%, so I thank her for that. On nuclear, of course we will look at a range of financing models. I explained earlier why nuclear is so important as part of the energy mix—it is a non-intermittent supply—but of course the whole point of the regulated asset base model is that, ultimately, it should result in cheaper prices for consumers.

[Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)]

Of course renewables are preferable, but as the Secretary of State has just set out, for quite some way into the future we will need non-intermittent or dialable energy sources as well. The ultimate game-changer might be battery technology, which could change that balance. Will he say a little about what the Government are doing to support research and development on batteries?