§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what he estimates would be the amount of grant required to stimulate conversion of plant to coal firing in order to absorb at an annual rate an additional 10 million tonnes.
§ Mr. John MooreAssuming that the approximate capital cost of coal-fired plant is £100 per annual tonne of coal input, the cost at today's prices of installing sufficient coal plant to absorb 10 million tonnes of coal per annum might be some £1,000 million. Therefore, if a grant were to be introduced, at the same rate of subsidy as the recently announced boiler conversion scheme to cover this amount of capital expenditure the total grant required might be around £250 million. However, it is not possible to forecast with any accuracy how quickly firms would come forward with conversion projects which would qualify for grant. At present I have no proposals to extend the current scheme.