Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)

I thank noble Lords for their support, which is encouraging. I readily acknowledge that we are building on the work that the last Government undertook, and I think we are entitled to say that this has been very successful. It is very good to build on it. I say to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, that obtaining value for money is clearly an important issue. The clearing price for ONW was £50.90 per megawatt hour, meaning that it was our second-cheapest technology after solar. We think that the repowering policy will likely increase the amount of ONW bidding into the contracts for difference. This will increase competitive tensions further—unlike the resulting lower bid prices, which should lead to consumer savings. Generally, as I said, upwards of 1 gigawatt of onshore wind is clearly due to reach the end of its operating life at the end of government support by the end of 2030. It makes sense that we try to ensure that this is extended. To hark back to the nuclear question, we are obviously awaiting EDF’s formal announcement about an extension of life, potentially, for some of the existing nuclear power stations. I take this as a whole and, where it is right to do so, some support for extending the life of some of these operations is worth while.