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Energy Bill

My Lords, I welcome the government amendment. As we are all aware from the Climate Change Bill and this Bill, heating accounts for about half of energy consumption in this country and 47 per cent of carbon emissions, and half of that energy and carbon emission is from the domestic sector. I should like to explore that area a little more with the Minister, because, as the White Paper stated last year, only 1 per cent of that sector is currently renewable. To meet the targets that we are being set in Europe, major challenges have to be met through that sector as much as through energy generation. I shall return to some of the issues that the noble Baroness raised, but I congratulate the Minister on listing as a source geothermal energy. That is very positive and perhaps covers heat pumps, which are often powered in that way. Given the very distributed nature of the domestic heat sector, we can all understand how it could work on a large scale with the equivalent of renewables obligation certificates; but with small scale, which is much more prominent in this type of energy use, what we do about, for instance, my two wood-burning stoves? What we do about the 80,000 solar water-heating installations nationally? A lot of the 49 per cent is generated by very small domestic or small business installations. I find it difficult to understand how that will work—not that I in any way want to put the Government off taking on that challenge. I, too, raise the issue of combined heat and power, because that has played a big part in the Government’s energy strategy. CHP can save up to 25 per cent of CO2 emissions—there is quite a broad range depending on the individual installation—but most of it is fossil-fuel based and is less efficient than if it was producing heat alone, so there is naturally a potential discrimination against that important sector, which I know that we all want to be successful. I would be very interested to hear from the Minister how the department will ensure that the two strategies will not conflict.