§ Lord Jenkin of Rodingasked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the fall in the monthly value of trades in fixed price renewables obligation certificates since (a) 1 May 2003; and (b) 12 August 2003; and [HL4954]
What was the total value of renewables obligation certificates traded in the first compliance period; and [HL4955]
What is their estimate of the state of the market in renewables obligation certificates on the forward programme of investment in the generation of electricity from renewable source. [HL4957]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe prices paid by electricity suppliers for renewables obligation certificates are a matter for the industry, although we recognise that the renewables obligation certificate market is important in terms of providing investor confidence for longer term renewables projects. In view of this, the Government have been working closely with the industry to see if any further steps need to be taken to avoid a recurrence of the sort of problems cause by TXU UK going into administration.
While we do not have information as to the value of ROCs traded in the first obligation period, I can confirm that over 5.5 million ROCs were issued from 1 April 2002 until 31 March 2003, representing over 5.5 TWh of renewables electricity eligible under the obligation.