Lee Waters, Deputy Minister for Climate Change has announced a deep dive into renewable energy in Wales.
The purpose of the exercise is to identify barriers to ‘significantly scaling up’ renewable energy in the country and identifying steps to overcome the barriers.
The deep dive will:
- Consider the scale of investment in renewable energy generation needed to meet Wales’ statutory duties.
- Identify the scope for community ownership within private sector renewable generation projects and the wider role for communities to work in partnership with developers in Wales.
- Consider how to increase the benefit to Wales from commercially-owned developments, where ownership is not being pursued.
- Consider the scale of opportunity for public and community-led renewable energy generation in Wales.
- Consider how to support the growth/development of public and community-owned renewable energy generation in Wales
- Challenge the status quo for delivery in Wales and set out priority actions to support greater renewable energy generation by public bodies and community groups in Wales.
The deep dive, set to begin this month, will involve a small core group of ‘critical thinkers’ led by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, from both within and outside the sector to provide input and challenge.
Members of the group include Dr Jeffrey Hardy, Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London, Anthony Kyriakides, Head of Renewables at Energy Saving Trust and Guy Newey, Director of Strategy and Performance at Energy Systems Catapult.
It is anticipated that the early outcomes of the discussions will be reported back to the Senedd prior to the Christmas break in an Oral Statement.
In his written statement regarding the deep dive, Mr Waters stated his intention that this statement will be supported by an action plan setting out how the issues identified can be best overcome.
The terms of reference document for the deep dive is available on the Welsh Government website.
