To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent estimate he has made of the stability risk threshold for the national grid in terms of (a) total measured output and (b) percentage of total electricity produced from wind turbines; and if he will make a statement. (155506)

[holding answer 17 September 2007]: Advice from National Grid, the GB System Operator, is that the percentage of total electrical energy that can be produced by wind generation is likely to be limited by economic rather than technical considerations and that any limit will lie beyond the Government’s current renewable targets or aspirations. This view is supported by evidence from abroad, with a number of countries having achieved, in percentage terms, the wind generation output that the UK currently aspires to.