EDITOR’S OPINION


Hitting clean energy targets Chris Jones


Managing editor of Energy in Buildings & Industry


H


ow much the new government can take full credit for the success of the latest renewables auction might


be debatable, but there’s no getting away from the fact that the launch of 131 new clean energy projects is in marked contrast to the previous auction which failed to attract any interest in offshore wind investment. The £1.5bn auction will provide funding for numerous windfarms, solar farms and tidal power projects and it is calculated that it will deliver enough clean electricity to power 11 million UK homes. These projects include the largest offshore development in Europe – the Hornsea 3 off the Yorkshire coast – and Green Volt, set to be the largest floating offshore wind project in the world. The latest auction represented the


sixth allocation round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, the government’s main mechanism for supporting new low carbon power infrastructure. The scheme


guarantees a set amount, know as the ‘strike price’, for electricity that generators receive per unit of power output. If power prices fall below the price agreed at auction, the government makes up the difference. In response to the failure of the 2023 auction, and taking into account the increasing costs of manufacturing and installing turbines, a decision had already been made by the Conservative administration to raise the maximum price of offshore wind subsidies by around two-thirds. However, there’s no doubt that Labour’s move to raise the overall CfD auction budget by more than £500m – representing a 50% increase – played a significant part in generating more interest from private investors.


The success of the auction is


widely considered to be crucial to the government’s hopes of achieving its election pledge to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind by 2030. While the projects launched will deliver only a fraction of the clean energy capacity that will ultimately be required to hit those targets, it does at least provide the market with confidence that the government is serious about its mission to decarbonise the electricity grid.


Most people will welcome the


...it’s the potential rewards of improved energy security and lower energy bills that will ultimately decide whether such policies will receive the backing of consumers


environmental benefits of greener energy, but it’s the potential rewards of improved energy security and lower energy bills that will ultimately decide whether such policies will receive the backing of consumers. The government says that the roll- out of low carbon electricity will help to protect families and businesses from spiking global fossil fuel prices and represents a big step in achieving energy independence. However, while it will no doubt seek to provide the public purse with value for money in future renewable auctions, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s funding from the Treasury that will be used to incentivise private investors, so the figure at the bottom of the energy bill is not the only price to be paid by the UK tax payer.


Barry Fentem


Specification divisional manager at Altecnic


26


Andy Green Head of technical


solutions at Baxi 33 Jason Murphy


Managing director global retail at IMS Evolve


34


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Contributors to this issue


Andrew Warren


Chair of the British Energy Efficiency Federation


10


Michal Papierz manager at


14 EMEA operations


Contemporary Controls


Energy in Buildings


& Industry PROMOTING ENERGY EFFICIENCY


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