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 support the (a) use and (b) production of renewable (i) energy and (ii) infrastructure in each nation and region of the UK.

The Government has supported a number of measures and programmes to support the production and use of renewable energy and infrastructure. The Government has committed to making up to £557 million available for further Contracts for Difference auctions to bring forward large-scale renewable projects and introduced the Smart Export Guarantee in June, to ensure that generators are paid for excess energy they export back to the grid from 2020.

On 7 March, the Government announced the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which will build on the UK’s global leadership in offshore wind and support the delivery of up to 30GW of offshore wind by 2030 in Great Britain; enhancing growth in the regions while continuing to reduce costs. We are also investing over £3 billion to support low-carbon innovation in the UK up to 2021, to ensure that the UK continues to reap the benefits from the transition to a low carbon economy. Previous schemes for renewable electricity include the Renewable Obligation and the Feed-in Tariff Scheme.

Energy policy is devolved matter in Northern Ireland.

The Government continues to support the production and use of renewable heat with the current Great Britain Renewable Heat Incentive. There is a separate Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.The GB Renewable Heat Incentive supports the installation of renewable heat equipment in every region of Great Britain. To the end of June 2019, the RHI had supported 70,642 domestic, and 19,455 non-domestic installations.

The Government has also launched the Heat Networks Investment project (HNIP) - a major Government project which will invest up to £320m of capital funding in heat network projects in England and Wales. HNIP funds are specifically offered as ‘gap funding’ through a combination of grants and loans and the scheme will be open for applications for a period of up to three years.

Previous schemes for renewable heat include Clear Skies, the Low Carbon Building Programme, the Green Deal, and the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme.