Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase production of renewable energy.

The Clean Growth Strategy set out a number of steps we are taking to increase production of renewable energy. These include up to £557 million for further Pot 2 Contract for Difference auctions, with the next one planned for spring 2019, and working with industry as they develop an ambitious Sector Deal for offshore wind, which could result in 10 gigawatts of new capacity, with the opportunity for additional deployment if this is cost effective, built in the 2020s. The Feed-in Tariff scheme also remains open to support smaller-scale electricity generation.

The Renewable Heat Incentive is funded until 2020/21, with a budget of £4.5 billion between 2016 and 2021 to deploy renewable and low carbon heat to businesses and homes.

In addition, heat networks will play a vital role in the long term decarbonisation of heating in all of the illustrative 2050 scenarios as outlined in the Clean Growth Strategy. The Department is supporting the deployment of heat networks, through a £14 million budget provided for feasibility and project development for over 200 schemes across 131 local authorities.