Solar Panels

Baroness Hayman Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of Peers for the Planet. The Minister’s remarks about the consultation and its results were extremely encouraging and I am grateful to her for them. She spoke about the role of solar panels in the Government’s clean energy mission, but does she agree with me that, particularly for industrial buildings, the fitting of solar panels makes economic and financial sense and gives the people working in those businesses and buildings both energy sufficiency and lower bills?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Baroness that the fitting of more efficient energy methods contributes to both the energy security of our country and the efficiency of those buildings. It is very important that we focus on that as much as we can and we will do all we can to encourage that with non-domestic buildings. Some technical issues came up as part of the consultation responses—we had 2,000 responses, including some on the fitting of solar panels to roofs and other efficiency measures—and it is important that we look at them before we issue our statement.