Community and public energy

Jeremy MilesLabour

1 May 2024, Plenary

Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language

…I think that's the ambition that we probably both share. And I know that he'll welcome the launch of Ynni Cymru, which I think will make a significant contribution to changing the landscape in that direction. It has already committed almost £1 million-worth of resource grants, which will help…

Tagged for: “Ynni Cymru”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

1 May 2024, Plenary

Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language

…the Member is right to say that it is a mix. And I'm looking forward to seeing the work that I know Ynni Cymru, which is the product of the joint working that we have with Plaid Cymru as part of our co-operation agreement, will be able to do to support community energy initiatives and to make sure…

Tagged for: “Ynni Cymru”, “community energy”, “local energy”Official Record

Jeremy MilesLabour

17 April 2024, Plenary

Short Debate: The impact of renewable energy infrastructure on rural communities

…we would be joining the sector in setting up a renewable developer on behalf of the people of Wales in Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru. Looking ahead, we know we have more work to do to work with industry to retain more value in Wales as we work to meet our renewable energy targets. Building on the work from…

Tagged for: “Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru”Official Record

Benedict Ferguson

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

I noted three things down, seeing this question coming up. You've got to get your arms around Ynni Cymru as an opportunity to establish a local energy market for Wales, at distribution level, up to 5 MW. It's just the single—. It could be the most powerful thing that you could do for communities in…

Tagged for: “Ynni Cymru”, “local energy”, “community energy”Official Record

Benedict Ferguson

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…and local authorities. We're really failing in Wales at getting decent collaboration between the community energy sector and the local authority sector, and they can help each other so much, and I think this is one of the areas where they can. If prudential borrowing can be brought into finance one…

Tagged for: “community energy”Official Record

Hefin DavidLabour

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…more about innovative funding models for transition and models of ownership, and, particularly, Community Energy Wales mentioned that patient underwriting of equity stakes—can you just elaborate on what that means as well?

Tagged for: “Community Energy”Official Record

Benedict Ferguson

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…forward to, in fact. And I'm just reminded of someone I interviewed recently for a job funded by the Welsh Government energy service resource grant funding that I was talking about. So, there's a value of our members there in bringing new people into the community energy sector, and they're going to…

Tagged for: “Welsh Government energy service”, “community energy”Official Record

Benedict Ferguson

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…and the people in the last session. One point I want to make about skills that's often mistaken in the community energy sector is actually just the breadth of skills that are needed. So, not to always focus in. We're not focusing on engineering skills or project management skills only; there's more…

Tagged for: “community energy”Official Record

Luke FletcherPlaid

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…the shortages in the wider economy of skills across all sectors, really, and that's something I think Community Energy Wales identified, that need for encouraging young people to get into the sector, the need for teachers to recognise the potential future within that sector as well. So, I'll ask the…

Tagged for: “Community Energy”Official Record

Benedict Ferguson

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…to the first question, which is the scale-up. It's an awesome level of scale-up. And, historically, the Welsh Government energy service has found this really difficult to resource, and you can understand why, because it could go everywhere at any time. We saw, for example, during the cost-of-living…

Tagged for: “Welsh Government energy service”, “local energy”Official Record

Samuel KurtzConservative

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…Benedict if I may: you've said that increased start-up finance, particularly grant finance, would help community energy projects to get off the ground and progress through the early, highest risk phases. Can you tell us a little bit more about what those high-risk phases are to community projects…

Tagged for: “community energy”Official Record

Benedict Ferguson

21 March 2024, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Green Economy - Panel 2 - Alternative Models of Ownership

…resources to actually help community stakeholders do the commercial negotiation. This is way above most community energy organisations’ heads—it’s a very difficult commercial negotiation to undertake. Where we’ve got friendly developers, like RWE, who have come in early as forerunners, we’re…

Tagged for: “community energy”Official Record