No new offshore wind farms will see the light of day in the UK after the government’s latest auction in what critics have called the biggest clean energy policy failure for nearly a decade.
None of the companies hoping to build large offshore wind farms in UK waters have taken part in the government’s annual auction, which awards contracts to generate renewable electricity for 15 years at a fixed price.
The companies had repeatedly warned ministers that the auction price was too low for offshore wind farms to participate in after sector costs soared around 40% due to inflation in their supply chains supply.
The government confirmed on Friday that only 3.7 gigawatts of new clean energy projects were awarded a contract, down from 11 GW in the previous auction – a blow to the UK’s clean energy targets.
Winning projects include solar farms, onshore wind farms and a record number of tidal energy projects. However, the absence of new giant offshore wind farms will make the UK’s climate targets much more difficult to achieve.
The government’s ‘energy security disaster’ means the UK will miss out on billions in investment and could also push up the bills of hard-working households, Labor has warned.
Industry experts have said the UK’s three biggest offshore wind developers – SSE, ScottishPower and Sweden’s Vattenfall – were forced out of the tender after ministers refused to consider of their warnings.
Industry has consistently called on the government to take higher costs into account by adjusting the maximum auction price, ever since Vattenfall announced earlier this year that it would stop work on the multi-billion dollar Norfolk Boreas wind farm. billion pounds as rising costs meant it was no longer profitable. .
Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower, said: “This is a multi-billion euro lost opportunity to deliver low-cost energy to consumers and a wake-up call for government.
“We all want the same thing: to build green, safer, low-cost offshore wind turbines in our waters. ScottishPower is in the business of building wind farms and our experience is second to none in delivering projects where others have failed. But this time, the economic situation simply did not hold up.”
Ed Miliband, Labor’s shadow energy security and net zero secretary, said: “The Tories have now trashed the industry that was supposed to be the crown jewels of the UK’s energy system – blocking cheap, clean energy and locale we need.
“Ministers were warned repeatedly that this was going to happen, but they didn’t listen. They just don’t understand how to achieve the green sprint, and Rishi Sunak’s government is too weak and divided to deliver the clean energy Britain needs,” Miliband said.
Sam Richards, founder and campaign manager of Britain Remade, which campaigns for economic growth in Britain, said the ‘catastrophic outcome’ of the auction was ‘a direct result of government complacency and incompetence’.
He added: “It will condemn consumers to higher bills than necessary and mean Britain will lose vital jobs and billions in investment. »
Graham Stuart, Minister for Energy and Climate Change, said the government was delighted that the auctions had won “a record number of successful projects in solar, onshore wind, tidal energy and, for the first time, geothermal energy.
Stuart said the government would work with the offshore wind industry to maintain global leadership in the sector.