Energy White Paper Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Damian Hinds
Main Page: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)Department Debates - View all Damian Hinds's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(3 years, 4 months ago)
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Alok Sharma
First, I was on a call with the hon. Lady recently and she acknowledged—through gritted teeth, I think—that she was quite pleased with the UK’s NDC commitment of at least 68%, so I thank her for that. On nuclear, of course we will look at a range of financing models. I explained earlier why nuclear is so important as part of the energy mix—it is a non-intermittent supply—but of course the whole point of the regulated asset base model is that, ultimately, it should result in cheaper prices for consumers.
Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)
Of course renewables are preferable, but as the Secretary of State has just set out, for quite some way into the future we will need non-intermittent or dialable energy sources as well. The ultimate game-changer might be battery technology, which could change that balance. Will he say a little about what the Government are doing to support research and development on batteries?