Third UK Contracts for Difference Round Opens, 6GW Capacity Up For Grabs

The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is opening the third Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round today, 29 May.

The third CfD round has attracted offshore wind bids with a combined capacity of 8.4GW from major developers such as SSE, Equinor, Scottish Power, innogy, and Red Rock Power Ltd.

A total of 6GW of renewable energy capacity will be allocated in this CfD round. The selected projects are scheduled to come online in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.

The administrative strike price for offshore wind is expected to amount to GBP 56 per MWh for 2023-2024 and GBP 53 per MWh for 2024-2025.

The UK has committed to allocating GBP 557 million to support bi-annual CfD auctions for offshore wind and remote island wind, beginning from the third CfD round and going throughout the 2020s.

The next round is scheduled for 2021 and every two years or so from then on. Depending on the price achieved, the auctions are expected to deliver up to 2GW of offshore wind each year in the 2020s.