§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what discussions he has had with the regional electricity companies to encourage them to use more renewable energy; [75686]
(2) what target, in terms of the percentage of electricity provided through renewables, each of the regional electricity companies has set themselves; and what progress was made in achieving this in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [75687]
§ Mr. BattleOrders placed under the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation (NFFO) arrangements require the Regional Electricity Companies (RECs) to contract collectively for specific amounts of renewable generation.
307WAs an illustration of the progress made to date, in calendar year 1997, NFFO projects supplied 2.63 Terra Watt hours (TWh) of electricity. In calendar year 1998, that rose to 3.29 TWh, an increase of 25 per cent.
In September last year I laid the fifth NFFO Order—NFFO-5—which followed immediately on from a consultation with the RECs. That Order is the largest to date, for a total of 261 projects with a total Declared Net Capacity (DNC) of 1177 Mega Watts (MW).