Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase investment in (a) solar, (b) nuclear, and (c) hydrogen power, as well as offshore and onshore wind capacity.

The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is the Government’s flagship scheme for supporting new renewable electricity generation projects in Great Britain. The latest round is the largest yet and aims to secure more capacity than the three previous rounds combined by supporting an expanded number of renewable technologies including onshore and offshore wind and solar. In February the Government also announced that the next CfD allocation round will be brought forward to March 2023, and future rounds will run annually, rather than every two years, thereafter. These steps will help drive forward the deployment of renewable power.

Government support for investment in nuclear energy includes:

• Progressing the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill through Parliament. The Bill will enable use of the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for nuclear projects, which will help to facilitate private sector investment.
• Announcing a £100m Combined Option agreement with EDF to support the development of Sizewell C, to help bring it to maturity and attract investment.
• Committing up to £1.7bn of funding to support a new gigawatt-scale nuclear project reaching Final Investment Decision this Parliament.
• Investing up to £210m in support of the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor, as part of wider funding for Advanced Nuclear Technologies. Funding for this project will be matched by private investment.
• A new £120m Future Nuclear Enabling Fund to provide targeted support to address barriers to entry for future nuclear.
• It is also the Government’s intention to consult on classifying nuclear energy as a green investment under the UK Green Taxonomy, which is designed to drive investment into key low carbon companies and industries, as part of the green industrial revolution.

On hydrogen power, the Government is exploring the need and case for further market intervention to support low carbon capacity deployment and ensure unabated gas capacity has clear decarbonisation pathways. In summer 2022, the Government intends to publish a consultation expanding existing Decarbonisation Readiness requirements for new build and refurbishing combustion power plants to demonstrate they have viable decarbonisation plan by converting to either hydrogen generation or Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technology.