UK reveals record-breaking offshore wind auction results
The UK government has today published record-breaking results in its seventh auction (AR7), with 8.4GW of offshore wind being awarded in what it says is Europe’s biggest ever offshore wind auction.
Two of the awards – Dogger Bank South East and West, with a total generating capacity of 3GW – were made to RWE, despite the company recently announcing that a final decision had been postponed for three months.
In fact awards have for the first time this year been made regardless of whether planning permission has even been granted.
Among a raft of changes to the process, eligibility requirements were relaxed ‘to allow fixed-bottom offshore wind projects to apply for a CfD while awaiting full planning consent’.
Other changes include 20-year index-linked contracts for fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind, onshore wind, repowered onshore wind, remote island wind, and solar PV.
Only offshore wind bids will be visible in terms of budget, which could be increased, said the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) ‘if it presents good value for money for consumers’.
“Britain has taken a monumental step towards ending the country’s reliance on volatile fossil fuels and lowering bills for good, by delivering a record-breaking offshore wind result in its latest renewables auction,” said DESNZ.
“The results deliver the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in British and European history – confounding the global challenges facing the industry – a major vote of confidence in the UK’s new era of energy sovereignty and abundance.”
Other projects awarded alongside RWE are as follows:
- Awel y Môr: Wales, 775MW (Awel y Môr)
- Erebus: Wales, 100MW (Blue Gem Wind Ltd)
- Berwick Bank B: Scotland, 1,380MW (Berwick Bank)
- Pentland Floating Wind: Scotland, 92.5MW (Highland Wind Ltd)
- Norfolk Vanguard East: England, 1,545MW (Norfolk Vanguard East)
- Norfolk Vanguard West: England, 1,545MW (Norfolk Vanguard West)
“The government inherited the fiasco of the previous government’s failed Auction Round 5, in which not a single offshore wind project was secured,” said DESNZ. ”The last auction round, AR6, got the industry back on its feet. Now this auction round, known as Contracts for Difference AR7, has secured a record capacity of 8.4GW of offshore wind which will generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 12 million homes.
“The ground-breaking result puts Britain firmly on track to achieve its clean power mission by 2030.”
The projects will cost around £22 billion (€25 billion), which the government says will be from private investment.
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