---

As amended in the Standing Committee, further considered.

One could have a large power station with enormous capacity measured in gigawatts whose output is very small because it is being run at far less than capacity, but that does not answer my question: why allow capacity of 50kW when capacity of only 1kW or 3 kW is needed to produce the power for an individual household? Our debate today is beginning to illustrate the fact that when we have a Bill that is the subject of a large degree of consensus, it does not receive in Standing Committee the proper scrutiny and examination that can be achieved on the Floor of the House or during the Committee stage of an ordinary public Bill, when those who are concerned about the Bill or sceptical serve on the Committee alongside those who are enthusiastic about it, with the result that a real debate is had. Perhaps we shall be able to resolve the problems by the time we get to Third Reading. The British Wind Energy Association believes that its calculation is correct, and I find it hard to understand why it should be wrong. I am looking through ““Calculations for wind energy statistics”” to try to address the point that has been put to me. My intellectual understanding of the matter is being challenged and I do not want that challenge to go unanswered. My hon. Friend has asserted that the average UK household use of energy is much higher than I said. I do not know whether the figure of average domestic energy use of 4,700kWh per annum is incorrect, or what he thinks should be put in its place. As I understand it, if efficiency is close to 100 per cent. one needs less capacity than one would with less efficient generators such as wind turbines, which are only 0.3 per cent. efficient because of the inconsistent nature of wind. Most types of generators have a capacity of 0.5 per cent. If the average home uses 4,700 kWh a year, the generators can provide power, as my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering said, for 5,000 households. For example, a 1MWe wind turbine can supply energy to 559.1 homes. The Minister defended himself by saying that the definitions of microgeneration in the Government amendments of 50kW and 45kW are set high to meet the provisions of clause 16. I hope that he accepts that the community energy schemes dealt with in that clause are subject to a much higher maximum, so Government amendment No. 39 should apply to domestic household microgeneration, not the promotion of community energy schemes.