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The UK’s aim to develop cleaner energy has taken a step forward after 131 clean energy projects won state subsidy contracts in this year’s auction round — which the government said was enough to potentially power about 11mn homes.
The figure, announced on Tuesday, includes more than 5 gigawatts of offshore wind projects, helping the sector following a botched auction round last year in which no offshore wind developers bid.
The government said it was the “biggest round ever” with a total 9.6GW awarded across all technologies.
Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy and net zero, said the government and energy industry were “securing investment into our country”, adding it was “another significant step forward in our mission for clean power”.
However, the total capacity of offshore wind projects secured may not yet be enough to meet the UK’s stretching target of decarbonising electricity supplies by 2030.
Industry had previously argued that this round, and the next one, would need to deliver about 10GW of offshore wind capacity each to keep the sector on track with government targets.
The new Labour government has said that by 2030 it wants to quadruple offshore wind capacity, triple solar power and double onshore wind, in order to meet its target of net zero power by then.
This is a developing story
