UK: CCC Concerned over Offshore Wind in EMR Delivery Plan

The UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) welcomed the Government’s Electricity Market Reform (EMR) Delivery Plan, but highlighted its concerns over two issues with regard to offshore wind energy.

The CCC voiced its concerns in a letter written to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), in response to the UK Government’s consultation on the Delivery Plan.

First, ambitions for the deployment of offshore wind after 2020 are left uncertain, the CCC warns. “Increased certainty could be achieved through a combination of: a) narrowing the range of scenarios in the Delivery Plan, and clarifying conditions under which different scenarios would be appropriate; b) publishing commercialisation strategies for less mature technologies, including levels of investment through the 2020s and associated conditions; and c) setting a 2030 decarbonisation target,” Lord Deben, the Chairman of the CCC, recommends in the letter.

Secondly, the CCC is worried about the offshore wind strike prices, which start at an appropriate level but then fall rather rapidly. “The rate of price degression should be adjusted to reflect the evidence on achievable cost reduction under current market conditions, rather than ideal conditions that have not been met in practice. Our analysis suggests a degression closer to £5/MWh (rather than £15/MWh) between 2016/17 and 2018/19 is more likely to be appropriate,” the CCC advises.

These issues that need to be solved jeopardise the commercialisation of offshore wind technology, which is key in the low carbon sector, Lord Deben concluded.

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Offshore WIND Staff, September 10, 2013; Image: University of Hull/Vattenfall