Written question WQ84740

Welsh Government is promoting opportunities for individuals to invest in energy projects, including community schemes. For example, we recently supported Ripple Energy to develop the Graig Fatha wind farm. This is now operational and fully crowdfunded, with the cooperative having over 900 members. We will be scaling up our support further by implementing the recommendations of the renewable energy Deep Dive. This includes the specific recommendation to provide advice to households and communities on ways to reduce energy bills, improve energy efficiency and generate renewable energy.

Business Wales offers a wide range of advice and support on green policies and practices across Wales. Resource Efficiency Advisors are available to support businesses in becoming resource efficient and resilient businesses. The service also offers businesses specialist one-to-one advice specific to their needs in achieving their green ambitions.

Opportunities for businesses and the public sector to take forward renewable energy projects have been identified as part of the four Regional Energy Strategies. For example, the North Wales Growth Deal includes a Low Carbon Energy Programme with opportunities for £441.7m of investment and potential to generate up to 314 MW of renewable energy.

We are working to identify potential renewable energy generation opportunities in industry through industrial clusters. The South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) has accessed funding from the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge to create a sustainable plan for distribution of hydrogen, cleaner electricity production from renewables and use of carbon capture technologies.