UK renewable energy auction boosted by record government funding

Climate researchers welcomed the results and called for urgent delivery.

Susannah Rodgers September 03 2024

The UK's latest renewable energy auction has resulted in a record 130-plus clean energy projects after a boost in government funding to energy suppliers.

These include wind, solar and tidal energy projects that will power the equivalent of 11 million homes, the government said.

Nine offshore wind projects resulted from the auction, compared with no bids at all for offshore wind in the previous auction last year under the former government.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called the auction results a "significant step forward in our mission for clean power by 2030".

In July, the government announced a £500m ($656m) increase in funding for the auction, to more than £1.5bn. Industry bids for a share of the funding at auction, which provides initial subsidies for clean electricity projects.

Climate researchers welcomed the results.

“This has obviously been a very successful auction and should have instilled more confidence in renewables developers that the government is taking into account the recent rises in their costs," said Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"The wide variety of successful projects, including tidal stream, offshore wind and solar shows how much clean British energy we can still potentially harness."

Grantham policy fellow Esin Serin added: "What matters now is urgent delivery if the government is to realise its ambitions to quadruple offshore wind, triple solar and double onshore wind by 2030."

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