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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of allowing operational renewable projects access to the Contracts for Difference scheme on the accelerated deployment of renewables needed for the UK to attain its net-zero goal.

The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is designed to encourage low carbon generation and is open to a wide range of eligible renewable technologies. Under current eligibility criteria, renewable projects are not eligible to receive CfD support if they have already commenced generating. In a Government Response to a consultation published in November 2020 the government clarified the eligibility of part-built projects, i.e. those which have begun construction but have not commenced generating, stating that these projects are eligible to compete in the 2021 allocation round. We consider this achieves the right balance between accelerating deployment of renewables, whilst providing value for money for consumers by ensuring scheme costs are limited to what is necessary to legitimately stimulate deployment. We will keep this position under review.