The Senedd debated a proposal for a bill to require profits from renewable energy developments to be kept in Wales.

Adam Price outlined proposals for a community energy benefits bill to make local ownership a mandatory element in every energy generation development.

He warned of the risk of history repeating itself, saying Wales bore much of the human cost of the extractive economy but did not derive the full economic benefits.

Mr Price said: “The profit was extracted from Wales for others' benefit.

“Unfortunately, I think we are seeing the same model, the same pattern now reproducing itself in terms of Wales' natural resources for the 21st century, in terms of renewable energy.”

Mr Price said local ownership has been a part of Welsh Government policy since 2020.

But he warned: “It's not mandatory and therefore it's ignored, which is why we have so many developments that have no substantive element of local ownership.”

He praised Denmark “which has been so successful in rooting its decarbonisation in local ownership” since introducing a 20 per cent local ownership requirement in 2009.

Mr Price said the Institute of Welsh Affairs has been calling for a minimum threshold of 15 per cent.