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Energy: Draft National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation (EN-6)

Among the wodge of quotations that I have, I am sure that that is the case. However, the important point that I want to make to the noble Lord is that the party opposite has not had a consistent approach in supporting new nuclear power. The position now is that we have the national policy statement, and it is clear that the Government believe that nuclear power has a very important role to play in tackling the challenges that we face. It is low-carbon, secure and reliable, and we believe it to be cost-effective. Two issues have been put forward by noble Lords. First, it is said that we face severe energy issues over the next 10 years and, secondly, there is a criticism that we are putting too much emphasis on renewable energy. I shall respond, first, to the noble Lord, Lord Reay, and the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, about the so-called question of the lights going out. Of course, I read the reports produced by Ofgem with interest. Ofgem is an economic regulator; it is not charged with energy policy. Sometimes I think that Ofgem needs to reflect on what it is there to do, rather than produce rather speculative reports from time to time. It is the Government’s responsibility to establish policy in relation to energy and it is our job to ensure that there is security of supply. We will do that. Plenty of energy generation is due to go out of commission over the next 10 or 15 years but, even taking on board the impact of the emission standards legislation from Europe and the natural decommissioning of many of our nuclear power stations, the fact is that over 20 gigawatts of energy supply have just been constructed, are in construction or have received all planning consents, and more gigawatts are coming along in the pipeline. The noble Lord, Lord Reay, raised the question of UKCS. I know that we disagree about the amount of gas that will be required in 2020, and it is really a question of the calculation made about reduced demand, but our best estimate is that in 2020 UKCS could still provide about 50 per cent of our gas requirement. We have seen a big increase in our import capacity. There are many storage projects in the pipeline. When people talk about blackouts in 2017, they sometimes refer to an appendix in a document produced by my department. That appendix refers to outages which happen at the moment—short-term, temporary outages. That is very different from suggesting that suddenly our whole energy supply will collapse at some time in the next decade. That is simply not going to happen. As regards the mix, the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, made an interesting, almost Treasury-style, analysis on the question of where we should be putting our money in terms of energy supply. I understand what he is saying. I would say to him, first, that we should not put all our eggs in one basket. Diversity of supply is important for energy security. Secondly, renewables should play an important role in the future. We have an incredible resource, particularly in onshore and offshore wind, and in tidal energy. I take the point about cost, but, first, I would refer the noble Lord to his noble friend Lord Stern’s overriding analysis that it is better that we get on with moving towards a low-carbon economy now, rather than wait for years and then have to pay much more. Secondly, we expect the cost of renewables to reduce over the years, which is why the renewables obligation certificate system is predicated in the way that it is. I hardly ever agree with George Monbiot and I do not agree with him about FITs. It is Parliament which was insistent that we develop feed-in tariffs. I well recall the debates that I came into at a very late stage in relation to feed-in tariffs and the renewable heat incentive. There was a very strong consensus in both Houses that we should go down this route. It was pointed out by one noble Lord in the debate that we were criticised because we are projecting that only 2 per cent of our electricity needs will come from feed-in tariffs in 2020. However, they have an important role to play.