HC Deb 23 June 1997 vol 296 cc388-9W
Mr. Frank Cook

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what factors underlie the allocation of funding by her Department to the promotion of(a) the oil and gas industry and (b) the deployment of solar power in Britain. [4443]

Mr. John Battle

(a) The DTI sponsors the UK companies which supply goods and services to the oil, gas and petrochemicals industry in the UK and abroad. Funds are directed at actions to increase the technological capability and international competitiveness of these supplier companies and to promote exports.

(b) The DTI sponsors the new and renewable energy industry, which encompasses solar energy. In line with our manifesto commitment to undertake a new and strong drive to develop renewable energy sources, I recently announced a review of policy including considerations of what would be necessary and practicable to achieve 10 per cent. of UK's electricity needs by the year 2010, and how renewables, including solar, can make an effective contribution to meeting requirements for future greenhouse gas reduction commitments. In the meantime, the Government's new and renewable energy programme, currently under way, will continue.

The Government will be considering the balance of activities within the spending plans it inherited to ensure that they reflect the Government's priorities, through the Comprehensive Spending Review, announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 11 June 1997.

Mr. Cook

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment she has made of the number of jobs which could result from the development and widespread use of solar power in Britain. [4441]

Mr. Battle

My Department has not yet made any assessment of this kind. The current estimate of the number of people working directly on photovoltaics in the UK is around 250 and on active solar heating it is 160.

Mr. Cook

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what measures her Department is undertaking to ensure that(a) its own and (b) other suitable Government buildings are fitted with solar photovoltaic panels. [4386]

Mr. Battle

Continuing energy savings targets require that departments consider and implement means of reducing energy consumption. The use of photovoltaic cells is one method that departments and their professional advisers consider in seeking to reduce the amount of electricity supplied from the grid to buildings they are responsible for.

At the time of the refurbishment of the DTI Headquarter's Building at 1 Victoria Street and the designing of the Department of Environment's new Headquarter's building Eland House, thorough cost-benefit analyses of the potential for utilising PV were carried out. In the light of those analyses, it was decided that it would not be cost-effective to install PV modules in either building. Cost-benefit analyses typically consider the life cycle costings and total energy consumption for an installation.

Mr. Cook

To ask the President of the Board of Trade pursuant to her recent speech, (1) what measures her Department is undertaking to promote the use of solar power; [4385]

(2) what measures apart from the Scholar Programme her Department is undertaking to increase the use of solar electric power in (a) homes and (b) offices; [4440]

(3) what measures her Department is undertaking to create a market in Britain for the British solar photovoltaic industry. [4442]

Mr. Battle

I announced on 6 June,Official Report column 273, a review of Government policy on new and renewable energy including looking at all aspects of its support for solar energy. In the meantime my Department's New and Renewable Energy Programme, which includes work on solar energy, will continue.

Also, in addition to the SCOLAR programme under the Technology Foresight initiative, the Office of Science and Technology funds a programme of basic and applied research into solar energy, including photovoltaics, through the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.