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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he plans to take to encourage the creation of new jobs in the renewable energy sector as part of the economic recovery from the effect of covid-19.

As we recover from COVID-19, the Government intends to deliver a UK economy which is greener, more sustainable and more resilient. The UK already has over 460,000 jobs in low carbon businesses and their supply chains and it is estimated that the low-carbon economy could grow more than four times faster than the rest of the economy between 2015 and 2030 and support up to 2 million jobs.

The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is the government’s main mechanism for supporting new large-scale renewable electricity generation projects in Great Britain.

In the latest CfD allocation round 12 new renewable electricity projects were awarded contracts at record low costs across a range of technologies, which could see the creation of 8,000 jobs across the UK.

Offshore wind employs around 14,000 people in the UK. The Offshore Wind Sector Deal that was agreed last year between the government and industry aims to increase UK employment to 27,000 jobs by 2030 - these jobs will support communities right across the UK.