Lord Trefgarne
Main Page: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)(11 years, 10 months ago)
Lords Chamber
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the cost per kilowatt-hour (before subsidy) of generating electricity by hydropower; and how many sites within the United Kingdom have been authorised for this purpose.
My Lords, government records indicate that around 625 sites are currently operating in the UK. For large-scale installations over 5 megawatt capacity, the central estimate for standard run-off river hydro plants is 12.8 pence per kilowatt-hour. There are currently no published cost estimates for smaller hydro plants under 5 megawatts, but we expect to publish generation costs later this year for a range of renewable technologies drawing on evidence used in the renewables obligation and feed-in tariff.
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the Environment Agency has authorised several thousand very small sites for the purposes of electrical generation to the dismay of the angling community—and, indeed, the fish?
My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the angling community, and I agree with him that it is a very important and large community. When it raises concerns, we take them very seriously. But the trust is fully engaged in ongoing work to review the Environment Agency’s hydropower good practice guidelines.