§ Mr. SalmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy what Government expenditure has been on solar heating research, development and demonstration in(a) Scotland and (b) the United Kingdom in each of the last five years; and what is the planned expenditure in these areas in the next three years.
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§ Mr. Michael SpicerGovernment expenditure on the solar energy programme in each of the last five years has been as follows:
£ million 1983–84 0.9 1984–85 0.5 1985–86 0.7 1986–87 0.9 1987–88 1.1 In the current year it is expected to be around £1.4 million.
Energy paper 55, "Renewable Energy in the UK: The Way Forward", which was published in June this year and is available in the Library of the House, envisages a future programme lasting about 10 years at a total cost to Government of around £13 million. Precise figures for each of the next three years are not available.
The principal activities in the programme are field studies, which provide evidence of the costs and benefits of passive solar design from measurements in real buildings, and design studies, which provide an opportunity for design practices to explore passive solar techniques in a wide range of building types to produce a range of exemplar designs. Both activities cover the whole country including Scotland in order to allow for the full range of climatic variation. However, the research which relates to Scotland is not covered by separate contracts for which separate expenditure figures can be given.