UK awarded more than 3,3GW in renewable energy projects

On Monday, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) announced the eleven winning projects of its second Contacts for Difference (CFD) allocation round, totalling more than 3,3GW of renewable energy projects.

According to the press release from DBEIS, the eleven projects are worth up to £176 million per year.

The second round of Contracts for Difference (CfD) aimed mainly at less established renewable energy technologies, and commenced on 3 April 2017, although the largest capacity was awarded in three offshore wind projects.

Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Project will comprise 860MW, powering 893,690 households and will be developed by the Germany-based joint venture Innogy and Statkraft.

The strike price that it was awarded was £74.75/ MWh, and the two partners are expected to invest £2 billion.

Danish Dong Energy was awarded the Hornsea Project 2 with an impressive 1,386MW offshore wind installed capacity which is expected to power 1,440,300 English households.

Along with Moray Offshore Windfarm (East), which will have 950MW of offshore wind installed capacity, the two projects were awarded at the significantly low strike price of £57.50/ MWh proving the competitiveness of offshore wind.

Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) will be developed by a partnership between Portugal’s EDP Renewables and French energy giant Engie.

The first two projects will be located in England, and the latter will be located in Scotland.

All three offshore wind farms will have their first phase delivered by 2021/2022.

The rest of the technologies are advanced conversion technologies and dedicated biomass with combined heat and power, which mostly achieved a £74.75/MWh strike price.

Redruth EfW, an 8MW advanced conversion technology project, achieved a record low strike price at £40/MWh.

Richard Harrington, Minister for Energy and Industry said: We’ve placed clean growth at the heart of the Industrial Strategy to unlock opportunities across the country, while cutting carbon emissions”.

He added: “The offshore wind sector alone will invest £17.5bn in the UK up to 2021 and thousands of new jobs in British businesses will be created by the projects announced today”.

“This government will continue to seize these opportunities as the world moves towards a low carbon future, and will set out ambitious proposals in the upcoming Clean Growth Plan”.

The cost of wind projects is now 50 per cent cheaper than what it was in 2015, when the first CfD auction was held.

 

You can access the full list of the projects with more details here.