Embarrassment all round. The government-subsidised renewable energy contracts auction fell flat today as no bids were made by developers to build new offshore wind farms, dealing a significant setback to the government’s environmental commitments.
Deals were made on solar, tidal, onshore wind, and the UK’s first geothermal energy project in the auction but rising costs and lower government subsidies meant that no developers made a bid on offshore wind.
The British government is committed to increasing the amount of energy the grid receives from offshore wind from the current 14 gigawatts (GW) at present to 50GW by 2030. Today’s grand total of 0GW is, as Reaction’s energy columnist, the aptly named Giga Watt, put it: “an unqualified disaster”.
