Quantum Technology
Lord Holmes of Richmond Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Lord Holmes of Richmond
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure the UK is able to optimise the opportunities arising from quantum technology.
The Minister of State, Department for Energy and Net Zero and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Lord Vallance of Balham) (Lab)
My Lords, the UK’s national quantum programme has seeded a world-leading emerging sector. The Government are increasing investment from £1 billion in the last decade to £1 billion over the next four years. This funding will accelerate deployment of quantum sensors, networks and computers, turning the UK’s research excellence into industrial impact. It will also build the skills base, infrastructure and international partnerships necessary to cement the UK’s leadership position in what are game-changing technologies.
Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)
My Lords, the UK has an extraordinary opportunity when it comes to quantum: a potential 7% increase in productivity by 2045. That is some £212 billion. Does the Minister agree that the Government need to go further and faster in skills; in accepting all the recommendations of last year’s quantum taskforce; in scaling, to make bigger bets right across the quantum stack; and in driving demand, with government as an efficient, effective first customer—in short, being bolder and going deeper? The benefits to the UK economy can be measured in the billions.
Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)
The short answer is yes, and noble Lords will hear more about that shortly. All those things are critical. We have a good skills programme. There was a good report in July last year to deal with that. We are looking at options, including the use of procurement to make sure that this technology is pulled through.
Internet Activity: Energy Use
Lord Holmes of Richmond Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
The work of NESO in mapping out how we get to clean power by 2030 is the start of this process, and we will keep those matters within the review. We are working very hard with the network companies and Ofgem to accelerate investment and reform in the grid and in connection. That is a crucial matter in wanting to see an expansion of data centres in the UK where we have a significant advantage and an increasingly important market.
Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)
My Lords, I declare my technology interests as set out in register. Does the Minister agree that, going broader, we need far greater transparency about all the power that it takes to fuel these new technologies—compute power, energy power, and financial and natural resources? Is it time that we reviewed the power usage effectiveness measure, or PUE, for data centres? Is it the case that all these new technologies need to be considered not just in respect of how efficient they are and how effectively they are fuelled but, crucially, that this is done in a sustainable manner?
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
My Lords, I certainly accept the challenge from the noble Lord: as we wish to see the encouragement of data centres and the use and development of AI in the UK, clearly we want it to be sustainable. I make the point that, in the first place, newer cryptocurrencies use less energy than the original ones, and, secondly, that data centres are increasingly looking to energy efficiency methods. AI can be used as one way in which to improve our management of energy efficiency.