Britain is in line for nine new offshore wind farms after the Government’s latest renewables auction, but campaigners fear it may still fall short of clean power targets.
The nine new projects compare to none last year, and include what will be Europe’s largest and second-largest wind farm projects – Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 off the Yorkshire coast.
They are part of a new wave of green power projects including onshore wind and solar farms, which officials said will generate enough power for 11 million homes.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the auction had got the offshore industry “back on its feet”, adding that the projects are “essential to give energy security to families across the country”.
Speaking in the Commons, he described the latest auction as the “most successful… in British history” and a “major step forward in our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and help Britain get off the rollercoaster of volatile global gas markets”.
He also claimed the previous government’s “nine-year ban destroyed the pipeline of projects for onshore wind”, adding the Labour Government will seek to rebuild this.
Shadow energy minister Mark Garnier said the Tories “absolutely welcome that (Ed Miliband) has built on our successes in boosting renewable energy” but flagged “serious concerns” over whether increased costs mean his “commitment remains to cut bills by £300”.
Mr Garnier was referring to a claim that Labour’s energy plans will eventually drive down household bills by £300 a year.
The projects were announced as part of this year’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, a process started in 2015 as the Government’s mechanism for making sure renewable energy schemes are built.
Because clean projects can be expensive, developers bid to secure a guaranteed rate – or strike price – their project will get for every megawatt hour (MWh) of energy it produces in the coming years.
If the price of electricity on the open market dips below that, subsidies will kick in to top up payments to companies. If the price is higher, companies have to pay back the difference.
The latest round marks an improvement on last year, when no new offshore wind development contracts were agreed because the price was set too low to meet increasing costs in the industry.
But the Government still came in for criticism on Tuesday after the total amount of energy that the latest round of projects can generate is lower than previous totals.
The new projects will create about 9.6 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power, compared to 11GW in a similar auction in 2022.
Meanwhile, offshore wind generation will total just 5GW, lower than the 7GW in 2022.
It is roughly half of what is required each year to meet the Government’s target of 50GW of new offshore wind by 2030.
Ami McCarthy, Greenpeace UK’s political campaigner, said: “This urgently needs to be followed up with a much bigger auction next year, as well as investment for faster grid connections, better planning, and more storage to hold the green power for when it’s needed.”
Others praised the auction for bringing a record number of projects – 131 – across on and offshore wind, solar and floating offshore wind and tidal energy.
Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower, which won contracts for two major offshore wind farms, said offshore is “back on track after last year’s misstep”.
Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science, said it was “a very successful auction and should have instilled more confidence in renewables developers that the Government is taking into account the recent rises in their costs”.
The auction comes after the Government scrapped a de facto ban on onshore wind farms earlier this month via the planning system.
It also follows the formation of Great British Energy, a state-owned energy investment firm which will target £8.3 billion of funding for renewable power projects including offshore wind.
Dan McGrail, chief executive of trade body RenewableUK, said the auction showed Britain is “back in the global race for clean energy investment”.
He said the nine offshore wind projects “will increase investor confidence”, but that future auctions will “need a big step-up from today” to meet 2030 targets.
Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK, added that Tuesday’s figures showed the CfD programme is “once again fit for purpose”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel