Since May 2026 the Senedd has debated energy with a Plaid Cymru Government led by First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth. Reform UK and the Welsh Conservatives press ministers on pylons, windfarms and solar on farmland. Welsh Labour asks about small modular reactors at Wylfa, bills and grid delays. The Government points to a national energy strategy, community ownership and a Welsh public energy company.
The main arguments
Reform UK Members (James Evans, Gareth Beer, Sarah Edwards) say communities in mid Wales and Carmarthenshire feel ignored over pylons, turbines and substations. They ask for refusals and better pre-application consultation. The First Minister said blanket refusals are not the right approach. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5]
Darren Millar (Welsh Conservatives) wants 'Future Wales' revised and an immediate moratorium on industrial-scale solar and wind to protect farmland. Laura Anne Jones, Tom Montgomery and Art Wright (Reform UK) raise food security and solar on fields. Llyr Gruffydd (Plaid Cymru) spoke of balancing land demands. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5][6]
Ken Skates and Huw Thomas (Welsh Labour) press the Government on small modular reactors at Wylfa and ask why not elsewhere. Dan Thomas, John Clark and Stephen Senior (Reform UK) back more nuclear. Rhun ap Iorwerth said it suits a site with nuclear skills. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5][6]
Rhun ap Iorwerth and Adam Price (Plaid Cymru) propose community ownership and one Welsh public energy company, saying this keeps value in Wales and can lower costs. Jane Dodds (Welsh Liberal Democrats) wants faster planning for community energy. Reform UK's Stephen Senior and Steve Bayliss question its scale and evidence. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5][6]
On the grid, Shav Taj (Welsh Labour) says pylon politics could delay upgrades needed for Tata's electric arc furnace. Adam Price (Plaid Cymru) said National Grid points to several causes and many levers are reserved. Janet Finch-Saunders (Welsh Conservatives) asked what ministers knew. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
Members disagree on cost and net zero. Gareth Beer and Sarah Edwards (Reform UK) say bills are rising and ask for system costs against gas. Adam Price replied that public ownership and a wider low-carbon mix can lower costs. Rhun ap Iorwerth points to floating offshore wind jobs. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5]
Where the parties stand
Plaid Cymru
Ministers back a national energy strategy, a Welsh public energy company and community ownership. They reject blanket moratoria and prefer case-by-case decisions. Adam Price describes a whole-system target including nuclear where already decided, and floating offshore wind. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
Welsh Labour
Ken Skates, Vikki Howells, Shav Taj and Huw Thomas back small modular reactors at Wylfa and faster clean energy. They ask for guarantees on consumer bills and warn that blocking pylons could slow grid upgrades. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5]
Welsh Conservatives
Darren Millar wants a moratorium on industrial-scale solar and wind and a review of the national planning framework. Janet Finch-Saunders says grid capacity must be addressed and warns of reaction to pylons in mid Wales. Contributions: [1][2][3]
Reform UK
Members focus on pylons, windfarms and solar on farmland, and on cost and net zero. Several back nuclear, including small modular reactors, and call for better community consultation. Contributions: [1][2][3][4][5][6]
Welsh Liberal Democrats
Jane Dodds welcomes the focus on community energy and asks how the Government will speed up planning so communities can own projects, citing a Amman valley scheme that took ten years to get consent. Contributions: [1]
Wales Green Party
Paul Rock says renewable energy and heat pump support can cut bills and emissions. He asks the Government to raise a ban on coal tip extraction with the UK Government. Contributions: [1][2]
What the government is being pressed on
1Will the Government refuse or halt pylon, wind and solar applications? Rhun ap Iorwerth rejected moratoria and blanket refusals, saying decisions are case by case with communities at the centre. Llyr Gruffydd pointed to ongoing planning policy work. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
2What is the Government's position on small modular reactors? Ken Skates and Stephen Senior asked. Rhun ap Iorwerth said it suits a site with past nuclear skills, and Adam Price said the energy strategy will weigh technologies. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
3Why is the grid delaying Tata's electric arc furnace? Adam Price said he had spoken to Tata's chief executive and National Grid Electricity Transmission, which cited several causes, and that many levers are reserved. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
4Can ministers show that energy plans will lower bills? Vikki Howells, Steve Bayliss and Sarah Edwards asked for guarantees and figures. Adam Price said public ownership and a wider mix can lower costs, and offered to look at data. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
5How will communities get a real voice? Anna Nicholl, Gareth Beer and Sarah Edwards raised consultation. Rhun ap Iorwerth said the public energy company and community ownership schemes would lock in community benefit. Contributions: [1][2][3][4]
What the public is asking for
One open petition asks for an immediate moratorium on onshore wind projects using turbines of 200 m or larger (820 signatures). A closed petition on landfill permitting reached 314 signatures.
Who ministers are meeting
Ministers have met community energy bodies, offshore wind developers and industry events, and grid companies including National Grid and Scottish Power.
In the Sixth Senedd (2021 to 2026)
From the previous Senedd's record, for issues that run across both. The rest of this analysis covers the Seventh Senedd only.
In the Sixth Senedd, energy debates covered nuclear at Wylfa, pylons and undergrounding, community ownership, and floating offshore wind jobs. Members of several parties argued over who should benefit from Welsh resources and how far communities should shape projects.
In April 2024 a committee report on nuclear and the economy was debated. Paul Davies said it was not about the pros and cons. Carolyn Thomas (Welsh Labour) criticised the lack of sceptical evidence. Contributions: [1][2]
In June 2024 Adam Price (Plaid Cymru) moved to require new distribution lines to go underground, saying current planning policy was not working. Siân Gwenllian supported this on community consent grounds. Contributions: [1][2]
In June 2024 Jeremy Miles (Welsh Labour) set a target of 1.5 GW of locally owned renewable capacity by 2035. Rebecca Evans later described Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru as a way to keep value in Wales. Contributions: [1][2]
Jane Dodds (Welsh Liberal Democrats) said in January 2024 that floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea needs a skills plan, citing an estimate of 10,000 jobs per gigawatt manufactured. Contributions: [1][2]
Written by AI on 23 October 2026 from 105 contributions in the Senedd between 19 May 2026 and 19 October 2026, with the petitions and ministers' meetings on this brief. Each point links to the contributions it draws on; check them before quoting. How the analysis is written.
Where things stand
Statistics published by the Welsh Government. Each chart covers the years since the 2016 Senedd election, or as far back as the figures go, and marks each election since.
Electricity from renewable sources
8.0 terawatt hours
2024
A year earlier
7.8 terawatt hours(2023)
Estimated electricity generation by renewable projects in Wales each year, in terawatt hours.
Estimated by Regen for the Welsh Government: generation is worked out from each project's installed capacity using five-year average capacity factors, rather than measured.
The Programme for Government 2026 to 2030 belongs to the Seventh Senedd. Choose the Seventh Senedd to see how often each commitment has come up.
Towards energy independence
Develop a National Energy Strategy, mapping Wales’s current and future energy needs and setting out a clear, long‑term plan for the infrastructure required to meet them.
Merge Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, Ynni Cymru and the Welsh Government Energy Service to create a strengthened national energy company to grow community ownership.
Source: Welsh Government, Programme for government 2026 to 2030: New ambition for Wales, first published on 10 September 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Mentions are found by matching the names of plans, bodies and schemes; a mention says nothing about progress.
Key moments in the Senedd
No Plenary statements or debates on this brief in the Sixth Senedd yet.
Related votes
No votes in the Sixth Senedd have been tagged with this.
Votes are tagged from their own titles and the agenda item they were held under.
Each bar is the share of that party's speeches and questions in the Sixth Senedd that touched this brief, so large and small parties can be compared. The upright line marks the chamber as a whole: 0.52%.
In the first of our two articles supporting the debate on the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs (ETRA) Committee report: Green Economy, in Plenary, we explored decarbonising the economy.
Contributions tagged in each month of the Sixth Senedd. No sittings were held in August 2023, December 2024, February 2025, March 2025, April 2025, May 2025, June 2025, July 2025, August 2025, September 2025, October 2025, November 2025 and December 2025.Show the numbers
Month
Contributions
January 2023
0
February 2023
0
March 2023
0
April 2023
0
May 2023
0
June 2023
0
July 2023
0
August 2023
No sittings
September 2023
0
October 2023
0
November 2023
0
December 2023
0
January 2024
33
February 2024
42
March 2024
43
April 2024
17
May 2024
45
June 2024
71
July 2024
5
August 2024
0
How this brief is put together
This brief follows the Programme commitments listed above and tags the record with the phrases below. Keyword matching can miss business that discusses the issue in other words, and can tag a passing mention.
Show the phrases it uses
A contribution is tagged when its English text contains one of these phrases. Capital letters don't matter, except in abbreviations, which must match exactly. It is also tagged when the title of the agenda item or question it was part of contains one, as long as the contribution is at least 30 words long. The brief is also tagged whenever one of its themes is.
