Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chi Onwurah and Charles Hendry
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
There is real concern, especially among small innovative companies, that the Department’s smart meter programme, which should help reduce energy bills, is behind schedule, disorganised, has no technical standards to help small companies take part and is unco-ordinated with either the smart grid programme or spectrum release. Will the Minister provide some reassurances?
Charles Hendry
Let me provide the hon. Lady with reassurances. We have sped up the programme that we inherited and brought it forward by 12 months, we have been going forward in a very collaborative approach with industry to get its buy-in to all the key decisions, and we have submitted the technical specification for European Commission approval, which is happening in two stages, with one going through now and the second shortly. We see this as a very important aspect of energy efficiency and putting consumers in power, and also for real business opportunities for large and small companies alike.
Clean Coal
Debate between Chi Onwurah and Charles Hendry(12 years, 9 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Ms Osborne. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah) for securing this debate. She has raised some important issues. I am sorry that, to make a political point, she distorted the situation, but I will clarify how we are trying to take forward carbon capture and storage particularly, to ensure that Britain can lead global developments in the sector.
Let me say at the outset that we agree absolutely with the hon. Lady about the important role that coal can continue to make. We want it to have a significant role in our energy infrastructure for many years to come. It is valued partly because of its flexibility, and as we move to inevitably more intermittent generation from all sorts of renewables, the flexibility, or dispatchability, of the coal sector is valuable indeed. We recognise that to secure that long-term future, we must deal with carbon emissions. The clean coal technologies—the hon. Lady outlined two of them—can help to ensure that coal has a chance to play an important role in our energy mix.
We are keen to take CCS forward with all speed. The Department has created a new division called the office of carbon capture and storage. It is not part of the old coal liabilities group, which is dealing with the historic legacies of the mining industry, but a new dynamic team focused purely on developing clean coal technologies. I hope that the hon. Lady recognises that in our message to the outside world we are already doing a great deal to signal a step change.
The hon. Lady referred to coal production and the volume of imports. In 2010, which is the last year for which we have full figures, domestic production was nearly 18 million tonnes from 16 underground and 35 surface mines, employing just over 6,000 people. We have seen a significant drop in imports in recent years, because of a range of factors, from 38 million tonnes in 2009 to 27 million tonnes, a drop of 31%, by 2010. There is a range of reasons for that, including pricing issues—it may sometimes be cheaper to import coal—but often the reason is the sulphurous content and other issues that are important in combustion uses for the different types of coal. Those are commercial decisions, but I want to ensure that we create a long-term viable future for the UK coalmining industry, and we want as much coal as possible to be provided from domestic sources.
On carbon capture and storage, the hon. Lady talked about confusion. At a CCS conference yesterday, Jeff Chapman, who heads the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, used the word “tremendous” to describe the Government’s position. He said that he was encouraged by the speed at which we are trying to move forward and our dynamism and much more comprehensive approach.
Last year, we had to accept reluctantly that the Longannet project would not work and that we could not get the 300 MW CCS output that we wanted for $1 billion. Some aspects of the old competition were part of that process. It ruled out some of the pre-combustion technologies that we believe have a significant role to play and oxy-fuel combustion, which is another technology that could be significant. It did not take account of the £100 million cost involved in putting in place the flue gas desulphurisation technology that an old plant needs to give it a longer-term future.
Since pulling back from that project, we have sought to put in place a new one and a new competition that is much more all-embracing. It will give the industry opportunities to identify more projects, and greater scope for collaboration between different industrial partners in that process. It will also provide the opportunity to find out whether we can use the funding to support infrastructure development. For example, would putting in place large, over-sized pipelines provide the opportunity for an industry to be created, rather than a few pilot projects?
Our ambition has moved on. It is not just about how to put a few projects in place, but about how to create an industry that is viable and competitive in the 2020s. That is why there is a real sense of excitement. There were 200 people at the CCS conference yesterday. Two hundred businesses attended an industry day last week, and 150 attended a previous one before Christmas. People around the world who know about the technology are looking at the United Kingdom as one of the places where they can take it forward.
We still have the £1 billion. The hon. Lady is wrong in saying that it has been raided. The Treasury said that we do not now expect it to be used in the current spending round, but it is still available, and if projects come forward more quickly, they can access it.
Chi Onwurah
Is the Minister saying that the £1 billion is available to be spent in this period of the spending review?
Charles Hendry
We think it unlikely that anyone could come forward for £1 billion in this spending round, but we have said that it is still available when it is needed. The likely expectation is that it has been knocked back to the next spending round, but the commitment remains.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chi Onwurah and Charles Hendry
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
22. What steps he is taking to provide support for underground coal gasification.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)
The Government recognise the potential of underground coal gasification, but the technology is still in its early stages. Our view is that as a carbon capture option it is not a priority to pursue at present. The Coal Authority has lead responsibility, as the freehold owner of our national coal resource, and we continue to monitor developments in the sector.
Chi Onwurah
Newcastle university in my constituency has spun out a start-up, Five-Quarter, to pioneer coal gasification. As the Minister will know, 75% of Britain’s coal reserves are still deep underground, much under the North sea. There is potentially more energy there than in all the natural gas so far extracted from the North sea, so should not the Minister be doing more to help to support this pioneering work?
Charles Hendry
I would be very grateful if the hon. Lady would bring those people from the university to meet me to talk about the work they are doing and how that resource can be developed more effectively. In the past couple of years, 14 licences have been granted for areas close to the shoreline. This is a technology we are keen to watch, but I would be very grateful to learn from the university’s expertise.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chi Onwurah and Charles Hendry
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
13. What plans he has for the future of carbon capture and storage.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)
CCS has the potential to play a very significant role in our future energy mix. The Government are committed to public sector investment in CCS technology for four power stations, including both coal and gas. We aim to reach agreement on the first project and to launch the competition for projects 2 to 4 later this year. We will also publish a CCS road map this autumn.
Charles Hendry
The hon. Lady raises an extremely important issue. We are actively discussing that with the companies involved in project 1, and we believe that we can find a way through it to ensure that those plants have a long-term viable future, but I hope she agrees that we are right to be making the future price of carbon clear.
Chi Onwurah
As the former managing director of a risk rating agency, the Secretary of State must be well aware of the corrosive effect of uncertainty on any business, yet he refuses to give green energy the clarity it needs on carbon capture and storage. After the photovoltaic fiasco, the “carbon four” coup and the building regulation bombshell, has he lost all credibility among the green industries?
Charles Hendry
That is a quite extraordinary question. The Secretary of State has shown real leadership on those issues. In the course of a year, £1 billion not previously available has been made available for carbon capture; we have set up an office of carbon capture and storage to drive forward that work; we have set up a development forum with the industry; we have put in place a regulator framework; and we are putting in place a road map in order to know what needs to happen. In place of the rhetoric and ambition under the previous Government, we are delivering action.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chi Onwurah and Charles Hendry(13 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
15. What the net contribution of wind-powered electricity generation to energy supply was in the final quarter of 2010.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)
The Department publishes data on electricity supplied to the UK electricity grid on a monthly basis. Figures for the final quarter of 2010 in full will be published on 24 February. DECC’s latest figures show that for October and November 2010 in total, wind generation by major power producers contributed 3.5% of all electricity supplied to the UK electricity grid.
Chi Onwurah
On Monday I visited Siemens in Byker, just outside my constituency, to see the significant investment it is making to train apprentices in renewable technologies. However, Siemens told me that it would not take on more apprentices until there were more confirmed renewable power projects. The Secretary of State has delayed the green investment bank and the renewable heat incentive and is reviewing the feed-in tariff. When will he give the renewable industry the positive signal it requires?
Charles Hendry
The renewable heat incentive is not actually related to the offshore wind development sector, in which Siemens is looking to operate. We are working closely with Siemens. Yesterday I chaired the offshore wind developers forum to consider the barriers to potential investment. We see this as a massive opportunity for Britain to secure the sort of green jobs that the hon. Lady is talking about in her constituency, and which Siemens is looking at more generally in areas such as Humberside.