Britain announces a budget of $1.45 billion for offshore wind auction

Government documents revealed on Monday that Britain will offer a lower budget for offshore winds in its next round of auctions to encourage investment in renewable energy capacity. One analyst said the country would struggle to reach its clean power goals.

The documents released on Monday show that the next round of auctions will have a budget for fixed, traditional offshore wind projects of 900 millions pounds, down from last year's 1.1 billion pounds.

Another 180 million pounds is for floating wind technologies that are in the early stages. These technologies did not receive a budget dedicated to them last year, and were forced to compete against other emerging technology such as tidal or geothermal.

In order to achieve its goal of decarbonising its electricity sector, the country will focus on offshore wind. It aims to increase its offshore wind capacity from 15 GW to 43-50 GW by the end the decade.

It holds annual auctions that offer renewable energy developers a guaranteed rate for their electricity. These are called Contracts for Difference.

Michael Shanks, British Minister of Energy, said in a press release that "our competitive new auction will allow us to purchase the right amount and quality of clean energy at the right price."

Pranav Menon is a senior researcher with Aurora Energy Research. He said that the funding proposed will leave the country far short of its clean energy targets.

If similar prices are reached at the auction this year, around 4.9 GW will likely be added to the new capacity.

This would put the ambitious offshore wind capacity targets of CP2030 out of reach, since it would require at least 7GW-9GW be purchased, which would mean extremely competitive bids, and are unlikely to materialise," he wrote in an email.

The government has yet to announce the budget for geothermal or tidal-stream technology.

The total budget for the auction last year was 1.5 billion pounds, including 1.1 billion for fixed offshore wind project.

(source: Reuters)