In the opening remarks, all attendees noted the importance of stability in the policy environment, with a number of comments made about the serious investment opportunities the UK could have in renewable energy.
Sarah Merrick from Vestas Wind Systems was hopeful that the UK was now coming to the end of a period of serious political instability, which Dima Rifai from Paradigm Change Capital Partners outlined as important when encouraging investors.
Parliamentarian opening statements
Energy select committee member Albert Owen (Lab, Ynys Mon) saw no problem with a healthy mix of energy sources, with renewables playing an important part. He said it was most important to talk about green jobs and upskilling communities.
Fellow select committee member Dr Alan Whitehead (Lab, Southampton Test) said renewables were slowly beginning to come out of the ‘showing promise’ phase, as the period of political uncertainty was coming to an end.
He noted there were many substantive offshore wind projects going ahead, despite reports in the newspapers to the contrary.
Echoing a point made by Co-operative Energy’s Ramsay Dunning earlier in the discussion, Owen spoke about the benefits of community energy to local areas.
Peter Aldous (Con, Waveney) said there was an opportunity, in his constituency in particular, to use transferable skills from the oil and gas industry in the offshore wind industry.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Maddock said the argument had to now turn to increasing the number of jobs and educational benefits on the back of renewable technologies.
She also noted that the EU Referendum Bill would create further uncertainty for investors.
Community benefit
In his opening remarks, Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George spoke about the possibility of a community benefits package for onshore wind and large-scale solar arrays, akin to the package recently announced for shale gas.
Many companies were not good at engaging with local communities, he said, adding consumers had understandable concerns about renewables on their doorstep.
Owen retorted that the greatest community benefit was more jobs, and voiced concerns that the recent announcement of business rate retention for councils affected by shale gas would simply vanish back into local government accounts.
Community benefits had already happened for some renewables, but only on a small scale, he pointed out.
Merrick agreed that community benefits for onshore wind had not been communicated in the best way, but said the package (£5k per MW) was actually very generous.
A political consensus on energy policy and the impact of the media
Turning to the question of the greenest government ever, Rifai said many under-estimated how investors sitting in countries outside the UK were swayed by headlines in the Financial Times about policy uncertainty.
She gave the example of the concerns a sovereign wealth fund had over Ed Miliband’s price freeze proposal. She said it was about getting and keeping people interested in investing.
Owen felt the media had “hyped-up” the issues around energy and taken the debate in a different direction.
George noted that international development was an area where there was a sustained political consensus, and posited whether this could be applied to aspects of energy policy.
Dunning felt the use of language around the energy debate needed to be addressed, pointing out the most unreported distinction between social and environmental taxes on energy bills.
Maddock questioned whether there was a lack of energy specialists in the media to report on issues.
Whitehead said the narrative from the media was “crisis,” which in reality was misguided.
Electricity market reform was an “enormous collaborative venture,” he added.
He later noted that the next steps in electricity market reform would be taken away from the media spotlight.
Aldous agreed, and said there was an almost complete consensus during the third reading of the Energy Act and almost universally welcomed changes to strike prices.
Shale gas
Dunning said there was a perception that fracking could do the same for the UK economy as it had done for America.
Although fracking had brought cheap gas prices in America and lowered the price of gas globally, he said it was unlikely that it would have the same effect in the UK because of geography and topography.
Whitehead called the shale gas debate “ludicrously over-hyped”.
Skills and employment
Steve Kingshott, global director at RSA, spoke of the need for the UK to eventually be in a position where it could export renewable skills around the world.
Helen Kettleborough from JDR Cables said that for her company to compete against larger European firms, they had to attract and hire the best engineers, which was difficult when renewable energy on such long timescales came up against the relatively short political cycle.
To bring the cost of renewables down, which was the ultimate aim, the ‘best brains’ were needed, she added.
Investing in UK renewable energy
Rifai said capital was “flowing” and looking for a home throughout the world. Now that a consensus had been achieved on the means, the government now needed to speed up the planning and siting process, as the project pipeline for renewables was actually looking quite thin.
Too much money was chasing too few deals, which could lead to the creation of valuation bubbles, she argued.
Both Aldous and Kingshott both agreed that more projects needed to be put into the UK’s infrastructure pipeline, to ensure that investment was not lost.
Kettleborough said the UK was seen as the centre for renewable energy throughout the world, and this had to be capitalised on.
A debate was had on whether facts about job creation and community benefits were the way to encourage more support for renewable energy, or if the debate was about changing the “hearts and minds” of the electorate on the issue.
Baroness Maddock and Dima Rifai both said winning the battle of hearts and minds was more important, with Rifai referencing her organisations work with the Norstec Group in trying to change the way renewable energy was communicated to the public.
However, Andrew George called for pragmatism and rationalism, and spoke of the need to appeal to people’s pockets, with community benefits and the promise of jobs and skills.
Attendees
• Tony Grew, Parliamentary Editor, PoliticsHome (Chair)
• Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Member, Energy and Climate Change Select Committee
• Albert Owen MP, Member, Energy and Climate Change Select Committee
• Peter Aldous MP, Member, Environmental Audit Select Committee and Vice-Chair, Renewable and Sustainable Energy APPG
• Andrew George MP, Chair, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Energy and Climate Change
• Baroness Maddock, Secretary, Renewable and Sustainable Energy APPG
• Ramsay Dunning, Managing Director, Co-Operative Energy
• Steve Kingshott, Global Director, Construction, Engineering and Renewable Energy, RSA
• Helen Kettleborough, Marketing and Communications Director, JDR Cables
• Sarah Merrick, Head of Public Affairs, UK and Ireland, Vestas Wind Systems
• Dima Rifai, CEO, Paradigm Change Capital Partners, UK