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 the production of energy from low-carbon renewable sources.

In 2017, 10.2 per cent of total energy consumption came from renewable sources; up from 9.2 per cent in 2016 (source: DUKES 2018) and 3.8% in 2010 (source: DUKES 6.7 – 2018). In our most recent Contracts for Difference auction we secured over 3GW of renewable electricity from as little as £57.50/MWh. The Government has made available up to £557m for future Contracts for Difference, with the next auction planned for May this year.

The Government is also supporting the decarbonisation of heat and is supporting renewable and low-carbon heating technologies through the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (RHI), which encourages the uptake of renewable heat technologies amongst householders, communities and businesses through financial incentives, with £4.5bn allocated for renewable and low carbon heating between 2016 and 2021.