Hornsea 3 & 4 secured in bumper CfD round  

It’s claimed the new Contracts for Difference (CfD) round will deliver enough green electricity to power 11 million homes. Alongside the big ticket announcements for the Hornsea projects off the Yorkshire coast, the round also included six new tidal projects, a combined 115 onshore wind and solar projects, plus funding for Green Volt, the largest floating offshore wind project in the world to reach market. 

This latest CfD auction is being heralded as a major win for the new Labour government and its ambitious green energy policies, having set itself a target of decarbonising the British grid by 2030. It comes on the heels of what was described as a disastrous renewables auction in 2023 under the previous government, where no new deals were agreed for offshore wind and a total of just 92 projects had funding secured. Following the July general election, Labour promised to boost funding for the 2024 auction by 50 per cent to £1.5bn.

“We inherited a broken energy policy, including last year’s disastrous auction round which gave us no successful offshore wind projects,” energy secretary Ed Miliband said in a statement. “Today we have now achieved a record-setting round for enough renewable power for 11 million homes, essential to give energy security to families across the country. It is another significant step forward in our mission for clean power by 2030 – bringing Britain energy independence and lower bills for good.”

While it was claimed by the government to be the biggest ever CfD round, this is in terms of the number of the projects rather than the total capacity secured. The 9.6GW allocated in 2024 falls short of 2022’s figure of 10.7GW.

Across the 131 projects in the latest round, offshore wind secured the highest capacity, with around 5GW. Solar was next with 3.3GW, followed by onshore wind with 1GW and floating wind with 400MW. Ringfenced funding for tidal power secured 28MW, but did so at the lowest price for the technology to date, coming in at £172/MWh. The tidal industry believes that continued support will allow it to expand and harness a significant portion of the estimated 11GW of accessible tidal stream capacity around the UK.

“The UK is now on track to have over 130MW of tidal stream capacity in its waters by 2029,” said Richard Arnold, policy director of the Marine Energy Council. “These projects will provide entirely predictable renewable energy and a critical service to the UK energy system.

“The tidal stream ringfence has provided a clear route to market, supporting the industry to grow, create jobs and secure investment into UK supply chains. Maintaining and increasing the size of the ringfence in future rounds will ensure the UK continues to lead in developing, deploying, and exporting tidal stream technology and expertise around the world.”