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 has taken to encourage private investment in the renewable energy sector.

The Department has a number of policies to encourage private investment in the renewable energy sector.

For example, the Contracts for Difference Scheme is the main mechanism of support for new renewable electricity deployment. The scheme provides long-term price stabilisation for new projects, making projects that have high upfront costs attractive to investors, while protecting consumers when electricity prices are high. Our support through the Contracts for Difference and other legacy schemes has helped to successfully unlock £94bn[1] of private sector investment in clean energy since 2010 and has driven down the cost of renewables. For example, offshore wind costs have fallen 65% since 2015.

In March 2019, the Government published the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which aims to work in partnership with the industry to boost the UK supply chain, develop new technologies and increase the UK’s export potential. As part of this Sector Deal, an Offshore Wind Growth Partnership was launched in June 2019, in which the private sector committed £100m towards a 10-year programme to support the growth of UK businesses looking to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the growth in offshore wind around the world.

[1] https://about.bnef.com/clean-energy-investment/