Revised Energy National Policy Statements

Lord Naseby Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Naseby (Con)]

My Lords, I apologise for speaking in the gap, but I had not realised that we had to have a list in the Moses Room. I shall be brief. I spent a number of years on the Select Committee on Energy in the other place. I very much welcome this framework, this document and the associated ones. As my noble friend just said, since Brexit we are on our own and therefore security of supply is vital.

I will make four key points. I was pleased by yesterday’s debate in our own House on nuclear. That is part of the way forward, and the very exciting bit is the development by Rolls-Royce of the mini-plant concept.

Unfortunately, solar is becoming a little controversial in rural England. The estimate given is that 150,000 acres of good farming land is being taken up every year. On top of the fact that nearly 100,000 acres are already going for other uses, industrial and so on, one has to ask, with regard to the planning decisions that are being made, whether there should be a clause or a requirement for the protection of the national interest. My noble friend may or may not know, but there is certainly considerable concern over the Mallard Pass and Cottam solar farms, and the Sunnica solar farm near Newmarket.

I have one suggestion to make, which was prompted by driving down from Northampton earlier today. There are now hundreds of warehouses across the nation and they all have flat roofs. Every one of those warehouses is an opportunity for solar. We should look at that urgently, put it into the planning requirement for any new ones and put some persuasive methodology ahead for those which have already been built.

On offshore, my noble friend Lord Moynihan covered most of that. However, I went out to offshore when I was in the Commons, and we have to make sure that we continue to explore and use those resources properly.

Finally, on the domestic front, heat pumps are not the perfect answer. They are extremely expensive. Quite frankly, I have talked to some people who have heat pumps and they are not exactly a source of warmth that most people would expect. The answer must lie in low-carbon hydrogen. I know that it is at its very early stages, but we need to move forward with research on that area, both in universities and in other research institutes. We need to give some major incentives to take it forward so that we can neutralise the gas emissions from the 70%-plus of homes that have gas-fired heating.