Debate contribution: Renewable Electricity Generation Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Ms Sinéad McLaughlin on .
- MLA
- Ms Sinéad McLaughlin
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 8 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Renewable Electricity Generation Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5673829
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Renewable Electricity Generation Bill and confirm that the SDLP will support the Bill at Second Stage. The legislation is important. It provides the basis for the renewable electricity price guarantee and, through contracts for difference, should provide greater certainty for investment in renewable generation. The SDLP has been calling for that, and I have raised it repeatedly with the Minister. Therefore, I welcome the fact that we finally have the Bill before the Assembly, but I have to emphasise the word "finally" because it has taken far too long. For several years, the renewable energy sector has been telling us that it needs certainty. Investors have been waiting, and projects have been waiting. I cannot say strongly enough how concerned the investors have been at the lack of pace with the legislation, and, all the while, the clock has continued to tick towards our legally binding target of at least 80% renewable electricity consumption by 2030. We are now less than four years away from that deadline, and the latest figures show that renewable generation is equivalent to around 50% of our gross final electricity consumption. That is, I suppose, significant progress, because it took us a long time to get from 40% to 50%. We are there, but we still have a considerable distance to travel in a short time. We know that businesses do not make major investment decisions on the basis of good intentions. They need to know what the support mechanisms will look like, when auctions will take place and whether the infrastructure will indeed exist to connect the electricity that they generate. The renewable electricity price guarantee can provide an important part of that certainty, and a well-designed contracts for difference scheme can give generators confidence over future revenues while protecting consumers from the volatility that we have seen in international energy markets. We can see that clearly; there has been another spike in recent days. That consumer benefit has to remain at the heart of the legislation. The transition to renewable energy cannot simply be an environmental project, although that in itself is full of merit; it must be also an economic and social project. People who are struggling with their electricity bills will, understandably, ask a simple question: what difference will this make to me? Our ambition must be that locally generated renewable electricity makes our energy systems more secure and less exposed to international fossil fuel prices, but, ultimately, it must make it more affordable for people's pockets. This Bill cannot deliver that on its own. We can create the best possible support scheme, but it w ill remain very little if renewable projects cannot connect to the grid. I have raised that directly with the Minister many times. We need confidence that SONI and NIE Networks have the resources and the investment required to develop the electricity network at the pace necessary. We also need a planning system capable of dealing with the scale of development required. There is little point in encouraging investment only for projects to spend years waiting for planning approval or a viable grid connection. Generation, grid infrastructure, planning, storage and interconnection are all part of the same energy system, and government needs to treat them the same way. There is also a significant economic opportunity here. We have an abundance of renewable energy potential. If we get this right, it should mean more than simply producing cleaner electricity; it should mean investment, good jobs and new economic opportunities in communities across the North. Dare I say that that includes the north-west? I therefore welcome the ability in the Bill to include community benefit requirements. If communities are hosting the infrastructure required for our energy transition, they should see the tangible benefits from it. I support the principle behind the Bill, and I want the renewable electricity price guarantee to succeed, but, after the delays that we have experienced, the Minister and her Department must now inject real pace and a sense of urgency into its implementation. Passing the Bill is not the end of the process. There will be further regulations, detailed scheme arrangements and, ultimately, the first auction to deliver. We cannot allow each of those stages to become another source of delay. We have statutory 2030 targets to meet; we have households and businesses that need greater stability for their energy costs; and we have investors who need certainty that this is genuinely a place where they can build and invest. The SDLP is supporting the Bill today, but the real measure of its success will not be whether we pass the legislation but whether we get renewable projects built, connected to the grid and generating affordable electricity for people across the North.
797 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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