After no offshore wind bids were submitted in the previous round, this one did much better with projects of over 5.3GW securing contracts in the UK’s Allocation Round 6. The latest auction round delivered 131 new green infrastructure projects, exceeding the 92 projects delivered in the last auction round. This makes it the biggest round ever with wind, solar, and tidal energy projects which will power the equivalent of 11m homes. One of the main reasons for such a good response to the round is the new government’s move to increase the budget by 50%, a record funding uplift seven times bigger than the previous round’s pot. This pulled back in offshore wind projects with nine contracts awarded. The most prominent are future Europe’s largest and second largest windfarm projects – Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 off Yorkshire. The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero awarded developer Ørsted a contract for difference (CfD) for a 1,080MW share of Hornsea 3 at an inflation-indexed strike price of £54.23 ($71.21) per MWh. The 2.4GW Hornsea 4 was awarded a CfD for £58.87 per MWh ($77.3). The 1,080MW Inch Cape offshore wind farm was also one of the round winners, with Inch Cape A and B with around 177.4MW and 88.7MW respectively being given CfDs for £54.23. Other winners include parts of the East Anglia and Moray Offshore West wind farms. Fixed-bottom offshore wind projects won deals for over 4.9GW of capacity. Another notable winner is the world’s largest floating offshore wind project to reach the market, Green Volt, which is double the size of Europe’s total installed floating offshore wind capacity. The 400MW floating wind farm won a CfD worth £139.93 per MWh. In total, 9.6GW of renewable energy capacity cleared AR6 auction across all technologies. Including this round, the UK’s total renewable electricity CfD portfolio now stands at 39GW and 370 projects. “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,” said UK energy secretary Ed Miliband. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsOffshore Wind United Kingdom