Renewable Energy: Seas and Oceans

(asked on 9th June 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of setting an electricity generation target of 1GW by 2030 for marine renewables; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 18th June 2021

As outlined in the recent Energy White Paper, there is no single optimal mix of technologies to decarbonise electricity generation. Renewable technologies will make a critical contribution to meeting our 2050 net zero commitment.

Targets can be useful in giving certainty to sectors with long investment horizons, however we do not believe that government should prescribe the proportion of generation that will come from all specific technologies; rather the role of government will be to enable the market to deliver the levels of deployment required whilst minimising both emissions and system costs.

Marine renewables could have a role in long-term decarbonisation but will have to reduce costs to compete with other renewable technologies.

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