Government announce today that 8 major renewable energy projects will be built, boosting jobs and contributing to a reduction of carbon emissions by around 10 Mt CO2 per year in comparison to power generation from fossil fuels. By 2020, the projects should provide up to £12 billion of private sector investment, supporting 8,500 jobs and adding a further 4.5GW or 4% of capacity to our energy mix. This would be enough to power over three million homes.
The 8 projects have been awarded contracts under the Final Investment Decision Enabling for Renewables process, allocating the first Contracts for Difference (CfD) 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. Further CfDs will be made available in the autumn.
The 2 North West offshore wind projects benefiting from this are the Burbo Bank Extension (Liverpool Bay) and the Walney Extension (Irish Sea off the Cumbrian coast). Both are being developed by Dong Energy Wind Power A/S.
For more details see the Government Press Release.
