Government unveils new renewables projects

Eight major renewable electricity projects have been unveiled as part of the Government’s electricity reforms.

In six years, the projects will provide up to £12bn of private sector investment and support 8,500 jobs. Furthermore, the projects could also add a further 4.5GW of low-carbon electricity to Britain’s energy mix (or around 4% of capacity) which would provide enough clean electricity to power over three million homes.

Once built, the successful projects will contribute around 14% of renewable electricity output by 2020. They are expected to reduce emissions by 10 MtCO2 per year compared to fossil fuel power generation.

The projects have been offered under Contracts for Difference (CfD), part of the Government’s Electricity Market Reform programme. They include offshore wind farms, coal to biomass conversions and a dedicated biomass plant with combined heat and power.

The eight successful projects have been awarded contracts under the Final Investment Decision (FID) Enabling for Renewables process, allocating the first CfDs that are being introduced through the Electricity Market Reform programme. Under CfDs, generators and developers receive a fixed strike price for the electricity they produce for 15 years.

These contracts are vital to give investors the confidence they need to pay the up-front costs of major new infrastructure projects.

The contracts are supported by the new legislative framework introduced through the Energy Act 2013. Further CfDs will be made available in the autumn and the Government intends to publish further details of the allocation process alongside the Government Response to the January Consultation on Competitive Allocation of CfDs shortly.

The successful projects are:

For more information, help or advice please contact Andrew Davison on 0191 211 7950.