Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the economic case for small modular nuclear reactors compared with alternative options for achieving net zero.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is clear that nuclear power is and will continue to be an essential part of our journey to net zero by 2050, in combination with other low carbon and renewable technologies. Great British Nuclear is pushing forward with its SMR competition for UK deployment with final decisions to be taken this spring. The economic case for SMRs would be factored into any investment decision into the technology.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of public sector buildings in England will have decarbonised heating by 2030.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to decarbonising a significant proportion of public sector buildings by 2030. This initiative is part of the broader effort to reduce carbon emissions and achieve net-zero targets. The Net Zero Strategy set-out the government’s commitment to halve direct emissions from public sector buildings by 2032 and an aim to further reduce them by 75% by 2037, both against a 2017 baseline.
To support this, up to £3.8 billion is being invested through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme over the financial years 2020/21 to 2027/28 to provide grants for public sector bodies in England to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to provide bridging support to Drax in advance of a contractually binding commitment from Drax to introduce carbon capture and storage.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A consultation was held under the previous administration on whether a transitional, or ‘bridging’, support should be provided for large-scale biomass generators when their current subsidies end. No decision has been taken on proposed support. Any decision will be subject to robust analysis and the Government is considering a range of factors to inform its decision.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the article "UK power stations burnt wood from old forest areas, Drax emails show", published in the Financial Times on 16 October, which cited internal emails from 2022 that concluded that Drax was “highly likely” to have burned wood sourced from ‘old growth’ forests in Canada.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government only supports sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that complies with our sustainability criteria. The 2023 Biomass Strategy contained a commitment to consult on developing and implementing a cross-sector sustainability framework to enable greater consistency across sectors. Next steps on this will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings in Ofgem’s investigation into Drax Power Limited published 29 August; and what steps they will take in response.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Following the conclusion of Ofgem’s investigation, the Government is considering the findings.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compliance of the Drax Group with (1) biomass sustainability rules, and (2) relevant regulatory standards; and what plans, if any, they have to change regulatory standards to improve the sustainability of the power generated at Drax power station.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofgem published their conclusions on an investigation into Drax’s compliance with sustainability standards on 29 August 2024. The investigation found that whilst Drax complied with the standards, it failed to report data accurately. Government expects full compliance with all regulatory obligations and the size of Drax’s redress payment, at £25 million, underscores the robustness of the regulatory system.
The 2023 Biomass Strategy contained a commitment to consult on developing and implementing a cross-sector sustainability framework to enable greater consistency across sectors. Next steps on this will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the challenges posed by the nascency of carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) technology; and whether they plan to support the piloting of CCUS technology in advance of committing to any full roll-out.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
CCUS will be vital to this government’s commitment to create good jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands, ensuring a just transition for the industries based in the North Sea, and accelerating towards Net Zero.
The historic investment we recently announced in Carbon Capture and Storage in the North-West and North-East is just the start, representing a vote of confidence in this technology and burgeoning industry. We have been engaging with the Track-1 and Track-2 clusters to understand their deployment and expansion plans, and we will have more to say on future projects in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether burning biomass at Drax Power Station will be an element of their strategy for achieving their net zero carbon emissions target.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As outlined by groups including the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies such as Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technologies can play a role in supporting net zero targets. No decisions on potential future support for this site have been made at this time.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 1 August (HL250), what plans they have for reducing the cost of operating heat pumps in the home below the cost of equivalent heating systems powered by gas or oil.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to ensuring low carbon heating is affordable. We are doing this by encouraging heat pump efficiency through innovation, installer training and product standards. We are also keen to support the most efficient ways of bringing down running costs of low-carbon alternatives.
The Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation, low carbon heating and other home improvements. We will be focused on making it economically worthwhile for people to transition to clean sources of heating. We will announce further policy detail in due course.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to set out a detailed and comprehensive analytical framework for establishing the optimum route to achieving Net Zero.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government sets five-yearly carbon budgets which outline our pathway to net zero. To identify the optimum route, Government considers a range of factors including technical potential, impacts on growth, wider costs and benefits, as well as advice from our independent advisory body, the Climate Change Committee. We will publish an updated Carbon Budget Delivery Plan in Spring 2025 and set the Carbon Budget 7 target by June 2026, in line with statutory duties.