Renewable Energy: Government Assistance
(asked on 3rd November 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much Government support has been provided in subsidies to the (a) marine, (b) wind, (c) biomass and (d) solar energy sectors in each of the last 10 years.
Support for the generation of renewable electricity is paid under three schemes: The Renewables Obligation (RO), the Feed-in Tariffs (FIT), and Contracts for Difference (CfD) schemes.
The Renewables Obligation does not pay a direct subsidy but instead support is provided through tradeable certificates.
Support for renewable heat is provided through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which is funded through general taxation.
The table below gives a breakdown of support for electricity generation and renewable heat from marine, wind, biomass and solar technologies in Great Britain. The CfD, FITs & GB RHI schemes are not available in Northern Ireland.
Year | Scheme+ |
| Support for electricity generation and renewable heat (in £m) | |||||
Marine | Offshore wind | Onshore wind | Biomass | Solar Thermal | Solar PV | |||
2010/11 | RO | 0.01 | 258.0 | 360.1 | 248.1 | - | 0.03 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| RHI | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
2011/12 | RO | 0.02 | 371.3 | 450.9 | 255.2 | - | 0.1 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | |
2012/13 | RO | 0.03 | 696.3 | 494.7 | 385.4 | - | 0.8 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 15 |
| - | |
2013/14 | RO | 0.2 | 1,022.6 | 731.5 | 484.3 | - | 36.3 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 49 |
| - | |
2014/15 | RO | 0.2 | 1,107.7 | 704.9 | 737.5 | - | 134.9 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 138 | 1 | - | |
2015/16 | RO | - | 1,496.8 | 805.5 | 932.0 | - | 304.0 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 239 | 2 | - | |
2016/17 | RO | 0.1 | 1,533.7 | 892.8 | 953.6 | - | 416.4 | |
| CfD | - | - | - | 91.8 | - | 0.4 | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 289 | 2 | - | |
2017/18 | RO | 1.8 | 2,008.6 | 1,256.2 | 864.7 | - | 471.1 | |
| CfD | - | 295.8 | - | 247.3 | - | 0.8 | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 368 | 3 | - | |
2018/19 | RO | 2.6 | 2,220.5 | 1,334.9 | 1,079.9 | - | 548.5 | |
| CfD | - | 587.6 | 11.3 | 380.2 | - | 0.8 | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 394 | 3 | - | |
2019/20 | RO* | 3.4 | 2,212.2 | 1,270.9 | 981.1 | - | 459.9 | |
| CfD |
| 1,276.1 | 88.7 | 442.0 | - | 1.4 | |
| RHI | - | - | - | 428 | 3 | - | |
Notes
*The RO figures are based on Ofgem’s certificate report as of 4 August 2020 from their Renewables and CHP Register.
* The RO figures for 2019/20 are provisional as not all the certificates have been issued yet and the full notional value of each certificate is not yet known.
* The figures for FITs are not available as they cannot be broken down by technology.
*RHI payments are made to scheme participants using eligible renewable heating technologies. The RHI figures above relate to both the Domestic and Non-Domestic RHI schemes.