Offshore wind on the up in the UK
While the UK is no longer a part of the EU, the story has been much the same on the British Isles where the government is shifting to expand its renewable infrastructure. The record-breaking offshore wind auctions which took place this month speak to the forward momentum of the UK.
For these auctions, the UK Government awarded subsidy contracts to eight new windfarms with a combined capacity of 8.4GW. This will be enough to power 12 million homes by decade’s conclude.
The level of interest in the contracts was surprising. The projects, valued at a total of US$27bn, attracted twice the amount of funding ministers created available compared to previous rounds. German utility company RWE dominated the auction, securing contracts for almost 7GW of the total capacity, including its Dogger Bank South and Norfolk Vanguard projects. Elsewhere, Scottish energy giant SSE won approval for the first phase of its 4.1GW Berwick Bank development off Scotland’s coast.
“We’ve secured a record-breaking 8.4GW of offshore wind,” Ed Miliband, the UK’s Energy Secretary, stated this month. “This is the largest amount of offshore wind procured in any auction ever in Britain or indeed Europe.”
Ed also added that the prices were “40% lower than the alternative cost of building and operating a new gas plant”.
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