Renewable Energy

Earl of Stair Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Earl of Stair (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for tabling this very relevant and important Question. Perhaps it is rather unfortunately timed, quite so soon after the events of last week. Much of the energy under discussion this evening originates from areas of the United Kingdom which, sadly, may no longer be part of it in a couple of years’ time. I am not sure where our system of interconnection will stand after the proposed separation from Europe, although I hope the interconnector being replaced between Scotland and Northern Ireland will still be of some use.

I welcome the plans for low-carbon production of energy by 2050 and support the 15% increase in generation of electricity from renewables in the last five years, and the increase in energy from renewables to 19% of all United Kingdom electricity. Perhaps surprisingly, I also confidently support the Government’s continued development of nuclear power but regret the line currently taken by the Government in Scotland. However, I would still prefer to undertake further research and development on a future use for radioactive waste, rather than simply deep-storing it.

My speech can be fairly brief tonight because I do not want to focus on the question of generation or the end use of renewable electricity but rather, the bit in between. The issue as I see it is neither the motivation nor the opportunity to produce renewable electricity. There is plenty of water in the hills for hydro-electric schemes and water in the sea for tidal power, when it is developed, and timber and other material for biomass burning, as indeed there is plenty of space for photo-voltaic panels in areas where land is available and not too intrusive. Continuous improvements in panel efficiency are opening up more and more areas for solar power.

Our current national grid system of interconnection gives us a good infrastructure for high-voltage transmission and storage of power, both nationally and internationally. The grid is designed to be broken down into distribution networks managed by smaller operators to bring the power to end users, decreasing ever more in capacity the further it goes into remoter areas. However, the end of the line is often where most of the renewable energy generation sites are located, as identified in the National Infrastructure Commission report, Smart Power.

These generation sites, often some distance from the grid, are now starting to require more network capacity. The Beauly to Denny line in Scotland, energised last year, and the two others still being constructed are prime examples of the requirements to increase capacity from renewable sites to wherever the energy is required or where it can be fed into the grid. As the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee identified in its report, Low Carbon Network Infrastructure, it is the very slow investment in developing and updating these distribution networks which is going to obstruct the future development of renewable power use in UK. We are already ahead of our targets for energy from renewable sources, but how long will it be at the present rate before we have filled the capacity of existing infrastructure and further use of renewable energy is frustrated by lack of capacity?

I will cite one example, in south-west Scotland, where the necessary upgrading of power line capacity will not start until early 2020 and is not likely to be energised until at least 2023. When this question was raised with a Scottish Government Minister last year, his reply was that although renewable generation came under the Scottish Government, anything to do with the grid was strictly a matter for Westminster. Can the Minister throw some light on the progress in prioritising the upgrading of distribution networks and where in the United Kingdom they will be? How is the strategic plan being developed, beyond the three networks mentioned earlier, to enable the continued expansion of renewable energy and more renewable energy projects to be developed?