Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities will be used to the benefit of the local community closest to where the electricity is generated.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Local communities are already able to benefit from the sale of electricity from Energy from Waste (EfW) plants in those instances where the local authority has made a provision to retain revenue from the sale when tendering a waste processing contract.
For EfW plants that utilise combined heat and power (CHP) technologies the local area can also benefit from the supply of low carbon heat, either via a heat network to heat homes and commercial premises or by direct connection to an industrial site to help incentivise businesses.
The Government is supporting EfW-based networks through its £320m Heat Network Investment Project and from 2022 an additional £270m will be available through the Green Heat Network Fund.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for removing VAT from domestic microgeneration renewable products and installations to help consumers to adopt domestic renewable energy sources.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Under current VAT rules, the installation of water and wind turbines is subject to the standard rate of VAT. However, the installation of other energy saving materials that generate domestic energy, such as solar panels and micro combined heat and power units, are subject to the reduced rate of VAT when certain conditions are met.
Although there are no current plans to extend the scope of the relief already in place, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future of combined heat and power plants in the UK.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The government is currently reviewing the role of combined heat and power plants, as the economy transitions to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy held a call for evidence, Combined Heat and Power (CHP): the route to 2050, between 12 June and 4 September. The responses are currently being analysed and a government response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will remove VAT on (a) domestic renewables and (b) installations for a period of 10 years to help (i) stimulate the green economy and (ii) the uptake of microgeneration.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Under current VAT rules, the installation of water and wind turbines is subject to the standard rate of VAT. However, the installation of other energy saving materials that generate domestic energy, such as solar panels and micro combined heat and power units, are subject to the reduced rate of VAT when certain conditions are met.
Although there are no current plans to extend the scope of the relief already in place, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of removing VAT on (a) domestic renewables and (b) installations to help (i) grow the green economy and (ii) stimulate the uptake of microgeneration on domestic properties.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Under current VAT rules, the installation of water and wind turbines is subject to the standard rate of VAT. However, the installation of other energy saving materials that generate domestic energy, such as solar panels and micro combined heat and power units, are subject to the reduced rate of VAT when certain conditions are met.
Although there are no current plans to extend the scope of the relief already in place, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to change the rate of VAT applied to micro combined heat and power units installed in dwellings and buildings used for a residential purpose.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Under current VAT rules, the installation of water and wind turbines is subject to the standard rate of VAT. However, the installation of other energy saving materials (ESMs) remains subject to the reduced rate of VAT when certain conditions are met.
Although there are no plans to extend the scope of the relief already in place, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their announcement in June that the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) will come into force from 1 January 2020 and that there will be five eligible low-carbon technology types for the proposed SEG Tariff, namely solar photovoltaic, wind, micro combined heat and power, and hydro and anaerobic digestion, whether eligible utilities will be required to offer a single SEG Tariff to community generators, regardless of generation type; or whether they will be required to offer one tariff for each technology type.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) will require licensed suppliers with 150,000 and over domestic customers to provide at least one tariff offer to any eligible exporter, they are free to offer more than one tariff. Other suppliers may participate on a voluntary basis.
Suppliers will not be required to offer different tariffs for each technology type. In keeping SEG requirements as simple as possible, suppliers will have maximum flexibility to build on it, adapt and innovate – for example by tailoring tariffs to appeal to owners of various types of small-scale generation, as well as wider smart infrastructure such as electric vehicles and domestic-scale storage systems.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) hydrogen fuel cell and (b) micro combined heat and power technologies purchased by UK consumers in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to his Department's Guidance on how to prepare for Brexit if there's no deal, what parts of the Government’s plan for generating low-carbon electricity in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal have been implemented.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has passed legislation which will enable the continued operability of the Feed-in Tariffs scheme, Contracts for Difference scheme, and the Renewables Obligation in the event of a no deal exit from the EU.
In the Clean Growth Strategy, government confirmed it would be making up to £557 million (2011/12 prices) of annual support available for further Contracts for Difference, providing industry with the certainty they need to invest in new projects.
The Department’s guidance states that in a no deal scenario, the government has legislated to ensure that Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin issued in EU countries, including for combined heat and power will continue to be recognised. This will allow electricity suppliers to continue to use EU Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin and will ensure that existing supply contracts are not compromised, in so far as these contracts depend upon Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin. This position will be kept under review.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the most popular models of (a) electricity and (b) heat microgeneration in buildings throughout the UK.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) scheme supports solar, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion and micro-combined heat and power technologies. On the basis of installations on Ofgem’s central FIT register, solar is the most popular method of electricity generation accounting for 99% of all installations (over 830,000) supported under the scheme.
The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) supports biomass only boilers and biomass pellet stoves, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and solar thermal panels. The Domestic RHI has accredited over 69,000 applications for the residential microgeneration of heat. As of May 2019, air source heat pumps are the most popular method of heat microgeneration, making up 54% of total accredited applications. More deployment data can be found here.
It should be noted that there are some forms of microgeneration not covered by the RHI or FITs scheme.