Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent steps her Department has taken to increase the use of tidal stream renewable energy technologies; and whether she has had recent discussions with her international counterparts on the use of this technology.

Tidal stream is eligible for the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, the UK’s main mechanism for supporting low-carbon generation. In the last CfD allocation round a record 11 tidal stream contracts were secured with a capacity of over 53MW. This is a world-leading deployment in Scottish and Welsh waters, and the first time that tidal stream power has been procured at this scale.

The Department engages on tidal stream internationally across Europe and beyond, including at the Ocean Energy Europe conference in October 2023.