Mr. Robert Watt:

I shall outline the Department's vision. How we heat our homes, transport ourselves and what we eat will be very different in the future. Earlier I mentioned big system changes. We will have a decarbonised electricity system. We will also have heat and transport electrified to a significant extent.

In terms of changes in the cost of batteries and power, the battery will change our society in fundamental ways. In ten or 15 years, there will be plenty of electric cars. Mr. Moran mentioned that there are 4,000 electric cars now. I firmly believe that the number will dramatically increase as the cost of batteries falls and we are seeing that. Some studies suggest, even in the absence of subsidies, that electric cars could be cheaper than fossil fuel combustion engines in four or five years. There will be dramatic changes but no one knows exactly.