§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he is satisfied with the level of support given by his Department into research projects of renewable energy resources; and if he will list the amounts spent each year since 1970 on projects into renewable energy resources and indicate what percentage this was of the total amount his Department spent.
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§ Mr. John MooreI am satisfied with the level of support given by my Department. The Department's research and development projects into renewables have been building up since 1976 and the year by year expenditures since then are:
£ 1976–77 … … 252,000 1977–78 … … 1,134,000 1978–79 … … 2,390,000 The estimated expenditure for 1979–80 is about£7 million. The last figure represents about 1½per cent. of my Department's total spend.