Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what analyses they have conducted into the operational lifetime of offshore and onshore wind energy machines; and what guidance they intend to provide in that regard to relevant individuals and organisations.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government does not provide guidance on the operational lifetime of wind turbines.
Previous government research relating to onshore wind turbine longevity is available on the government’s website, titled ‘Onshore Wind - Direct & Wider Economic Impacts’.
The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, a collaboration between Innovate UK and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, has jointly agreed innovation priorities around four areas, one of which is operations & maintenance and windfarm lifecycle.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the difficulties associated with the maintenance of wind turbines and associated equipment; and what steps they are taking, if any, to work with the offshore wind energy industry to address such difficulties.
Answered by Lord Henley
Operators are responsible for maintaining turbines and associated equipment for their projects.
The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, a collaboration between Innovate UK and ORE Catapult, has jointly agreed innovation priorities around four areas, one of which is operations & maintenance and windfarm lifecycle. As set out in the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, the sector will look to build on existing work by, for example, exploring the application of robotics and Artificial Intelligence in optimising maintenance and reducing costs.
The renewables share of electricity generation reached 33.3% in 2018 – a record high – with 111TWh generated from renewable sources. Offshore wind generated 26.6TWh which equated to 8% of the UK’s overall annual generation.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Lord Henley on 7 March, whether the proposed clauses on workers' rights for inclusion in the Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill will include improvements to air quality and water quality both outside and inside the workplace.
Answered by Lord Henley
New EU legislation that provides workers’ rights which member states are obliged to confer will be covered by the proposed clauses. Workers’ rights include labour protections regarding health and safety at work. The Government will be required to report on those new rights, whether they go further than current domestic rights, and if so the action the Government proposes to take. Air and water quality standards are only in scope to the extent that they fall within the definition of workers’ rights.
The Government has been clear that the UK will maintain and enhance environmental protections as it leaves the EU. As part of the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government has set an ambition to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than it found it – and has already put in train a number of policies to achieve this.
The Environment Bill will be introduced early in the second Session of this Parliament, and will include ambitious legislative measures to take direct action to address the biggest environmental priorities of our age: air quality, nature recovery, waste and resource efficiency, and water resource management. In the Environment Bill the Government will legislate to ensure there is a robust framework for the maintenance and strengthening of environmental standards as the UK leaves the EU.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how, in developing policies to reduce annual average carbon emissions, they collaborate with other countries who share the same objectives.
Answered by Lord Henley
We work collaboratively with other countries to tackle climate change in a variety ways including via multi-lateral fora and global alliances.
We work on climate via the G7 and G20; we promote ambitious action alongside other countries via the High Ambition Coalition and we drive collective action on the ground through, for example, our hosting of the world’s first zero emission vehicle summit; and creation of Powering Past Coal Alliance, to reduce emissions from the most polluting fuel, which now has over 70 members. We play a key role within the UN Climate Framework, helping secure the agreement of 195 countries to sign up to the historic Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 and then bringing it to life last year at COP24 via the creation of a common rulebook. We are also working with our UN partners to ensure the Secretary General’s Climate Summit in September 2019 brings together key international actors, across the public and private sectors, to drive transformative action on building resilience to climate change.
UK leadership is reflected in the actions of other countries. For example, we were the first country to introduce long-term legally binding emission reduction target, which has now been emulated across the world, including by France, Denmark, Sweden and Mexico