The fourth auction round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is to have a £265 million budget, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has said.
The majority of this sum – £200 million – is to go towards offshore wind projects, with this helping to meet the government’s goal of 40GW of capacity by 2030.
Emerging renewable technologies are to receive £55 million, with £24 million to support floating offshore projects.
The remaining £10 million is to be spent on Pot One technologies, with this being established technologies such as solar and onshore wind.
The government is seeking up to 5GW of capacity from these in the fourth round of the scheme, which is the first to allow solar and onshore wind to compete since 2015.
The technologies were barred from the support mechanism in 2016, and the re-introduction follows years of campaigning from industry players.
Set to open on 13 December, the fourth round of the CfD is aiming to double the renewable electricity capacity secured in the third round and generate more than the previous three rounds combined.
The auction saw 6GW of new offshore wind capacity contracted for, with prices as low as £39.65/MWh- a record-breaking figure.
RenewableUK CEO Dan McGrail said today’s announcement reflects the calls for increased ambition for new renewable energy capacity that have been made by industry.
“In this round we want to see just how low the price of new solar and onshore wind has fallen in the past five years, and make sure that the auction does the heavy lifting to take us towards our 2030 target of 40GW offshore wind.”
This target formed a key part of last year’s Ten Point Plan, alongside commitments such as bringing the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars forward to 2030 and targeting the installation of 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028.
