UK renewable energy auction secures enough power for 11m homes

THE UK government has promised to “go even further and faster” to deliver the power needed to become a “clean energy superpower” after this year’s renewable energy auction secured enough projects to power 11m homes.

Funding for this year’s Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 (AR6) soared to £1.5bn (US$1.9bn), up from the £227m budget for AR5, and helped deliver 131 contracts in offshore and onshore wind, solar, and tidal.

Following the failure to secure any offshore wind projects in AR5, nine offshore projects have been secured. These include the Hornsea 3 and 4 windfarms off the coast of Yorkshire, which are expected to be the largest and second largest offshore windfarms in Europe.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said: “As we accelerate our plan for clean power by 2030 the government will work with the industry on how we can build on this success to ensure we can go even further and faster to deliver the power we need.”

The new government has vowed to make the UK a “clean energy superpower” by 2030, saying it will work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar, and quadruple offshore capacity by the end of the decade.

Record-breaking capacity

Building on last year’s 92 secured projects, the combined energy capacity of AR6 will amount to just under 10 GW, with the bulk expected to be produced through offshore and solar sources.

Hornsea 3 and 4 will be operated by Danish energy company Ørsted and have a generating capacity of 2.9 GW and 2.6 GW respectively, with an expected delivery date between 2027 and 2029.

Other secured projects include the Green Volt offshore wind farm in Scotland, expected to be the world’s largest floating offshore windfarm.

This project will be run by Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn and is expected to produce first power by 2029, having a nominal energy capacity of up to 560 MW.

Solar projects won big in this year’s auction, with 115 projects in the pipeline, including EDF’s Longfield solar farm in Essex, which is expected to have a generating capacity of 400 MW.

Five contracts, worth 218 MW of renewable capacity, were won by British power generator RWE, which is developing several solar and onshore projects.

Tom Glover, the UK country chair for RWE, said: “If the government wants to deliver on its target to quadruple offshore wind to 60 GW by 2030, it will need to significantly ramp up procurement.

“It is therefore important that the government urgently review and confirm the parameters for next year’s auction, and ensure it takes place as planned next summer.”

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has yet to announce a budget for AR7 but says the timeline for the round will be announced “in due course”.