BETTER energy cable capacity for the Island will be high on the agenda when the Isle of Wight Council meets the government's energy chief, who has agreed to visit the Isle of Wight.

Councillors fear the Island is being hampered in its efforts to grow its renewable energy sources as two-thirds of the cable capacity to the mainland is taken up by Kingston Power Station.

Following the Islands Forum meeting earlier this month, council leader, Cllr Lora Peacey-Wilcox said she was pleased the chief executive of Ofgem — the government's office of gas and electricity markets — Jonathan Brearley, has agreed to meet with the authority.

Speaking at the full council meeting last week, Cllr Peacey-Wilcox said she had told Mr Brearley the IW was having to halt growth of renewable energy production due to energy cable capacity issues.

She said: "It has been an ongoing issue for 40 years I think, so to tackle this man ... I was chuffed that someone was going to take notice."

The announcement of the meeting has led to renewed hopes the Island could become fully self-sufficient from renewable energy sources.

At the council's corporate scrutiny committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday), Cllr Michael Lilley said the Island could clearly produce renewable energy but the problem was Kingston Power Station which was taking up two-thirds of the Island's connectivity and only operated a few hours a year.

He said the Island could become self-sufficient in renewable energy, including solar, tidal and wind power.

Cabinet member for climate change and environment, Cllr Jonathan Bacon, agreed the council has a vision for the Island of being a centre of excellence for renewable energy and hoped it would be brought to fruition through the council's mission zero goal and sustaining the Biosphere.

He hoped expertise would be developed alongside the energy sources.

Cllr Bacon claimed the power station slowed down development of other sources of renewable energy.

He said: "When people find out the situation with the power station, they are shocked. "

Cllr Bacon said dealing with it was a priority as it could unlock so much potential to export renewable energy from the Island.