Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether it plans to provide direction to the National Energy System Operator to account for marine energy in its Strategic Spatial Energy Plan.

The first iteration of the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) will not include spatial optimisation for wave and tidal energy projects as they are emerging technologies and volumes in development are currently very low. As policy and technology advance, the Government and NESO will keep this position under review and may consider the inclusion of wave and tidal energy in future iterations of the SSEP.