Great British Energy Bill

Lord Cameron of Dillington Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Grand Committee

I make a further plea to the Minister—I will never let an opportunity pass—that we have joined-up planning applications so that, at the same time as an offshore wind energy installation and generation planning application is sought, it is indicated that there will be onshore pylons and substations of a magnitude that would quite alarm the public. It is fair to make this transparent at the earliest possible stage, and that the planning is done as part of one application, not two separate applications—one offshore and one onshore. I know that East Anglia and Yorkshire are particularly vulnerable to these applications. With these few words, I look forward to the Minister’s response.

[Lord Cameron of Dillington (CB)]

My Lords, I ought to report on Amendment 111 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Offord. The assessment of the effects of offshore wind farms on the environment, with particular reference to sea-birds, has been ongoing for some years now. That does not necessarily undermine the future of the amendment, but it indicates that it might not be necessary.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology—the CEH—has been monitoring sea-birds in the North Sea since the 1970s. It largely studies birds on the Isle of May, just off the coast of Fife, but also sea-birds up and down the east coast of Britain. Over the past decade, these studies—largely funded by wind power operators, but also by the Scottish Government, the RSPB and others—have been extensively monitoring the effects of offshore wind farms on sea-birds. Admittedly, having to cope with and discount the simultaneous effect of bird flu has meant that this has proven a very complicated exercise recently but, with bird flu now on the wane, colonies of sea-birds seem to be flourishing in spite of the growth of offshore wind farms. The jury is still out, but the effect of these farms seems pretty low compared to that of bird flu and the new climate change-induced phenomenon of marine heatwaves. The latter winter current changes affect the growth and presence of sand eels, which are hugely important to the winter diet of many sea-birds.

The point is that the bottom tip of a marine turbine blade is 30 metres above sea level. That is pretty high and nearly all sea-birds fly below it. Kittiwakes are the notable exception but, even here, the CEH is helping the wind farm operators to examine how to minimise their losses. One solution is to paint one of the three blades black, which seems to have a beneficial effect. It is also helping to mitigate overall losses by building artificial nesting sites for kittiwakes on the Yorkshire cliffs, for example. The intention is that the overall kittiwake population should not be affected.

It is possible—and the jury, as I say, is still out on this—that offshore wind farms actually help sea-birds flourish. Most birds thrive relatively well during summer months, but they suffer and sometimes die from lack of food in winter months. While the recent cessation of sand-eel fishing by UK fishing boats has helped—they are now not allowed to fish for sand-eels—the Danes continue this practice in considerable quantities. However, neither the Danes’ nor other fishing boats tend to fish inside wind farms for fear of snagging their nets. Thus, wind farms have become a sanctuary for sand-eels and other fish and could therefore be having a beneficial effect on the overwintering of sea-birds. But, as I say, the jury is still out.

The environmental assessment of offshore wind farms is already happening, is based on data going back to the 1970s and seems to indicate so far that their environmental effects are not hugely harmful.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

I should like first to speak to my noble friend Lord Fuller’s Amendment 113, on tidal energy. I ask the Minister what the position is on the Severn because, in theory, the Severn bore has immense capacity to generate electricity, going upstream and downstream. It always strikes me that if we are looking for tidal energy, the Severn bore offers better opportunities than almost anything else. I am told that when people looked at this, they found big problems with flooding land further upstream, which would have led to enormous compensation claims from farmers and so forth. I should be grateful if the Minister filled us in on the Government’s thinking on the Severn, because it strikes me that if we could create tidal energy there, that would be very beneficial to the country as a whole.

Amendments 111 and 112 address environmental considerations. We have seen in the newspapers today that the Government are bringing forth a Bill that will say that in future, environmental considerations will not be taken into account in quite the same way in respect of building projects. Can the Minister update us on the Government’s thinking on that Bill, when it is likely to appear and what it is likely to say? We are all interested in this issue. Will it read directly across to energy projects, as it does for construction projects? We have heard from the Prime Minister about this wonderful tunnel they have been building on the HS2 line to preserve bats, which is costing £100 million. Then, we heard that it was not going to preserve the bats after all, and they were all going to die somehow. We want to be updated on the Government’s thinking on that. We get all these remarks from the Prime Minister, but they are significant in terms of the environmental concerns associated with construction projects. What I really want to know from the Minister is whether this is going to read straight across to energy projects in the same way and make it easier to get other construction projects going, such as housing. I should be grateful if he filled us in on that when he sums up.