"My Lords, the Government recognise that Great British electricity demand is expected to grow significantly, driven in part by advances in AI. We are clear that this growth must not prevent delivery of clean power by 2030 and net zero by 2050. The Government are working to ensure data centre …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"I completely agree with the noble Earl that merely believing that it is all going to be okay and that we can easily absorb all these additional demands on the energy sector without doing anything else is, at least, a folly. That is why the Government are taking substantial steps, …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"I have lots of reasons to agree with my noble friend about particular Administrations and how they might be replaced. As far as the future of AI nuclear is concerned, it is certainly the case that new nuclear can sit very well alongside, for example, AI growth zones. One …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"I welcome that question from the noble Lord. This is an issue that is quite close to my heart, and I recently visited the Liverpool tidal barrage scheme to see how it is doing. I personally am committed to developing tidal power, both tidal stream and tidal range, but there …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"I agree with the noble Lord that pumped hydro schemes are one method of ensuring that electricity is used as efficiently as it can be in terms of taking it in at some stages of the cycle and releasing it at others. A number of other arrangements can do that, …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"I have a feeling that the noble Lord will shortly be in receipt of a further letter from me on this subject. It is the case that the Modern Slavery Act, particularly in terms of a number of the concerns that have been raised about the more offset arrangements as …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"The noble Baroness mentions waste heat and electricity waste, and that is precisely the sort of area that needs to be optimised in terms of making sure that we can deal with this growth in AI without building huge new resources. It is by optimising the system that we can …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"I am afraid the noble Lord is back on his fairly standard topic. As far as AI is concerned, we ought to bear in mind that clean power already represents 73.7% of GB electricity generation and we are targeting clean power providing at least 95% of that power by 2030 …..." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 23 February be approved.
Relevant document: 54th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Considered in Grand Committee on 13 April...." Lord Whitehead - View Speech
"My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their valuable contributions to this debate. I will try to respond to their concerns—including those of the noble Lord, Lord Ashcombe, who went a bit beyond this particular SI but nevertheless made important points and asked questions that deserve a response.