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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 8 April (HL7358), what is the source for their figure of “less than 1% of total generation capacity”; and whether the economic constraints referred to have changed as a result of price rises over the last year.

The source of the assessment of the potential for hydroelectric power in England and Wales is the Hydropower Resource Assessment Report Version 13.0, October 2010.

Despite the level of current wholesale electricity prices, hydro project developers generally require long term power purchase agreements.