Business: Energy

(asked on 13th February 2019) - View Source

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is the policy of the Business Energy Efficiency Programme to help businesses deploy private sustainable energy supplies in order to lower costs and provide energy security for their business.


Answered by
Lord Henley Portrait
Lord Henley
This question was answered on 26th February 2019

The Clean Growth Strategy sets out our ambition to enable business consumers to reduce their energy usage by improving energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030, potentially reducing carbon emissions by 22MtCO2e over the fifth Carbon Budget. We are developing a package of measures to support businesses to deliver this level of ambition and will respond to a Call for Evidence published last year, ‘Helping businesses improve the way they use energy’ by the summer.

Regarding deploying private sustainable energy supplies the Government has been supporting the installation of low carbon and renewable heating for businesses, charities and public bodies through the Non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) since 2011. The scheme aims to bridge the gap between the cost of fossil fuel and low carbon heating technologies by offering a financial incentive and has over 19,100 participants as of December 2018.

In addition, the Government’s sustained support for clean energy has helped produce dramatic falls in the costs of renewable technology. For example, the cost of solar cells has fallen by 80 per cent since 2008. Support for solar comes directly from people's bills, so when costs come down, so should support. We have therefore taken steps to control the costs of support schemes, and subsidy-free deployment of solar PV may be a viable option for businesses. Our Industrial Strategy sets out how we want to make sure that the UK continues to reap the benefits from the transition to a low carbon economy.

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