Further written evidence reported to the House
Energy Bill
10:40 am
Gaynor Hartnell: I was hoping to add to the question on green renewable technologies. I said that the renewables obligation is not a very suitable mechanism for smaller-scale generation. Similarly, it is not ideally suited for emerging technologies where one is expecting the price to go down fairly rapidly, because it builds in quite a lot of inertia. A feed-in tariff is more effective for that kind of technology as well. Our wave and tidal device developers look with envy at countries such as Portugal and Ireland, which have feed-in tariffs for marine renewables, and expect to do business in those countries where that policy makes the climate much more conducive to their business.