The Crown Estate has welcomed the contracts announcement by the UK Government for eight renewable electricity projects, including five for offshore wind farms.
The contracts represents a total of 4.5 GW potential capacity – enough clean electricity to power over three million homes – with more than 3.1 GW of that from offshore wind.
The projects have been offered under Contracts for Difference (CfD), which form part of Government’s Electricity Market Reform programme. In addition to offshore wind farms, they include coal to biomass conversions and a dedicated biomass plant with combined heat and power.
Huub den Rooijen, Head of Offshore Wind said: “Today’s contracts announcement by Government for five offshore wind projects is another welcome milestone for the industry in 2014 and further boosts confidence in this maturing sector.
“As manager of the UK seabed, we look forward to continuing to work with Government and developers to bring down the costs of offshore wind, such as through investing in technological research and environmental studies, to promote a thriving industry, greater investor certainty and help the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy.”
These eight projects have been awarded contracts under the Final Investment Decision (FID) Enabling for Renewables process, allocating the first CfDs that are being introduced through the Electricity Market Reform programme.
Under CfDs, generators and developers receive a fixed strike price for the electricity they produce for 15 years. These contracts offer investors the confidence they need to pay the up-front costs of major new infrastructure projects.
Press release, April 24, 2014