The Anonymous Widower

UK Can Secure Record Number Of Offshore Wind Farms In This Year’s Auction For New Projects

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from RenewableUK.

The first five paragraphs, should be read as a whole and are a good summary of, where the UK is with offshore wind.

A new report published today by RenewableUK shows that the Government has an opportunity to secure a record number of new offshore wind farms, and record amount of new capacity, in this year’s summer’s auction for contracts to generate clean power (Contracts for Difference). In a huge boost to the UK’s energy security, the Government has the potential to double the country’s offshore wind capacity in this year’s auction alone.

RenewableUK’s latest EnergyPulse Insights Offshore Wind report reveals that 14 wind farms are already eligible to bid into this year’s CfD auction (Allocation Round 6), providing nearly 10.3 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity. The previous records were set in 2022 when 8.5GW was eligible across 7 projects.

In addition to this, a further 4.7GW of new offshore wind capacity (out of 8.7GW in the planning system) could become eligible before applications open for AR6 at the end of March. If these projects were to receive consent from the Government, 14.9GW of offshore wind capacity would be eligible for this year’s auction. The report notes that being eligible does not mean that projects will choose to bid in – but they have the potential to do so.

To put this 14.9GW of potential new capacity into context, we currently have 14.7GW of fully operational offshore wind which generates 14% of the UK’s entire electricity needs. Just one gigawatt of offshore wind generates enough electricity to power over a million British homes for a year.

The report also shows that a further 5.2GW are already under construction in UK waters, and it forecasts that nearly 45GW could be fully operational by the end of 2030.

It is certainly worth reading through to the last paragraph.

The press release also lists the projects eligible to bid into AR6.

• Norfolk Vanguard West and Norfolk Vanguard East (2,760MW) – RWE
•  Hornsea Four (2,600MW) – Ørsted
•  Awel y Môr (1,100MW) – RWE
•  East Anglia Two (900MW) – Iberdrola
•  East Anglia One North (800MW) – Iberdrola
•  Hornsea Three (753.1MW) – Ørsted
•   Seagreen 1A (500MW) – SSE Renewables, TotalEnergies
•   East Anglia Three (318MW) – Iberdrola
•   Inch Cape (270MW) – Inch Cape Offshore
•   Pentland (floating project) (100MW) – Highland Wind Limited
•   Erebus (floating project) (100MW)
•   Blyth 2 (floating project) (58MW)
•   Forthwind (test and demonstration site) (8MW) – Forthwind Limited

These make a total of 10,267MW

Currently, as I write this the UK is generating 29 GW, so 45 GW with a lot of energy storage, should be enough to power the country.

February 24, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage | Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6, Floating Wind Power, Offshore Wind Power, Wind Power