Record\u00a08.4GW\u00a0of offshore wind secured in Europe\u2019s biggest ever offshore wind auction – enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of over 12 million homes
\n as Britain races to cut bills and meet growing energy demand, price for offshore wind agreed at 40% lower than the cost of building and\u00a0operating\u00a0a new gas power plant
\n puts\u00a0the country\u00a0firmly\u00a0on track to\u00a0deliver\u00a0the mission\u00a0for\u00a0clean power by 2030, taking back control of its energy, and lowering bills for good
\n successful results unlock \u00a322 billion in private investment and supports 7,000 good, skilled jobs in every corner of the country – from the Scottish Highlands to the Celtic Sea<\/p>\n
Britain has taken a monumental step towards ending the country\u2019s reliance on volatile fossil fuels and lowering bills for good, by delivering a record-breaking offshore wind result in its latest renewables auction. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The results deliver the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in\u00a0British and\u00a0\u00a0European\u00a0history\u00a0– confounding the\u00a0global challenges facing the industry –\u00a0a major\u00a0vote of confidence in the\u00a0UK\u2019s\u00a0new\u00a0era of energy sovereignty and abundance. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The government inherited the fiasco of the\u00a0previous\u00a0government\u2019s failed Auction Round 5, in which not a single\u00a0offshore wind\u00a0project was secured. The last auction round, AR6, got the industry back on its feet. Now this auction round,\u00a0known as\u00a0Contracts for Difference\u00a0AR7, has secured a\u00a0record capacity\u00a0of 8.4GW\u00a0of offshore wind which will\u00a0generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 12 million homes. The ground-breaking result puts\u00a0Britain\u00a0firmly on track to achieve\u00a0its\u00a0clean power\u00a0mission\u00a0by 2030. \u00a0<\/p>\n
These\u00a0results show offshore wind is cheaper to build and\u00a0operate\u00a0than new gas.\u00a0In new\u00a0figures published today using the LCOE industry\u00a0metric,\u00a0the\u00a0cost of building and\u00a0operating\u00a0a new gas fired power station is \u00a3147 per megawatt hour.\u00a0By contrast, the results for fixed offshore wind in today\u2019s auction were \u00a390.91 per megawatt hour\u00a0on average\u00a0– or [\u00a365.25] in the commonly used benchmark of 2012 prices – 40% cheaper than the cost of building and\u00a0operating\u00a0new gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This auction will unlock around \u00a322 billion in private investment, supporting around\u00a07,000 jobs, bringing growth and good jobs to all regions of the country \u2013 and particularly to the country\u2019s industrial heartlands. Clean power is also essential to tackle the climate crisis, the greatest long-term threat the country faces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Projects have won in every part of the United Kingdom\u00a0–\u00a0including fixed offshore wind in: \u00a0<\/p>\n
Dogger Bank South off the coast of Yorkshire\u00a0and\u00a0Norfolk\u00a0Vanguard\u00a0off East\u00a0Anglia\u00a0\u2013\u00a0two of the largest\u00a0offshore wind farms in the world,\u00a0supporting thousands\u00a0of\u00a0jobs
\n Berwick Bank\u00a0in the North Sea – the first\u00a0new\u00a0Scottish project since 2022\u00a0and the largest planned offshore wind project in the world
\n and Awel Y Mor – the first Welsh project to win a contract in more than a decade<\/p>\n
These results also\u00a0represent\u00a0major progress in our efforts to lead the world in the emerging technologies of the future, floating offshore wind. Winning projects include Erebus,\u00a0in the Celtic Sea, and\u00a0Pentland\u00a0in Scotland, backed by pioneering investment from Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The auction round has secured major infrastructure projects which will be drivers for growth and prosperity in local communities for decades to come.\u00a0As Britain races to meet rising\u00a0electricity\u00a0demand,\u00a0expected to more than double by 2050,\u00a0and cut energy bills,\u00a0these\u00a0results\u00a0and new analysis published today\u00a0shows\u00a0that offshore wind, alongside solar and onshore wind,\u00a0remain\u00a0cheaper to build and operate than gas generation. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an increasingly unstable world, by accelerating investment in homegrown clean power, the government is also reducing the UK\u2019s exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets, which have contributed to half of all recessions since the 1970s and in 2025 alone, saw prices spike over 15% within a week due to global price shocks after global instability in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This announcement to build more clean, homegrown power follows measures in the budget to cut people\u2019s energy bills, with the government removing an average \u00a3150 of costs off energy bills from April this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband said:<\/p>\n
With\u00a0these\u00a0results,\u00a0Britain\u00a0is taking back control of our energy sovereignty. This is a historic win for those who want\u00a0Britain\u00a0to stand on our own two feet, controlling our own energy rather than depending on markets controlled by petrostates and dictators.<\/p>\n
It is a monumental step towards clean power by 2030 and the price secured in this auction is 40% lower than the\u00a0alternative\u00a0cost of building and operating a new gas plant.<\/p>\n
Clean, homegrown, power is the right choice for this\u00a0country\u00a0to bring down bills for\u00a0good\u00a0and this auction will create\u00a0thousands\u00a0of jobs throughout Britain.<\/p>\n
Head of Mission Control,\u00a0Chris Stark said:<\/p>\n
This is a stonking result\u00a0for delivering\u00a0on our mission for\u00a0clean power by 2030.\u00a0Amid global headwinds and pressures facing the offshore wind sector in recent years, we\u2019ve secured a record amount of capacity at a\u00a0competitive price for the\u00a0consumer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We need more offshore wind to meet the increasing demand for electricity in the years ahead,\u00a0this result powers us towards a future of clean, secure, energy abundance\u00a0and less\u00a0reliance\u00a0on foreign imports.<\/p>\n
Neil McDermott, CEO at the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC), said:<\/p>\n
The results from this allocation round are a prime example of the Contracts for Difference mechanism\u2019s greatest strengths, providing certainty for investors and supporting British jobs across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At LCCC, we\u2019re proud of our role in managing these contracts, adding to our existing operational portfolio of more than 10 GW with an additional 25 GW in the pipeline, and providing stewardship of these projects for the next two decades.<\/p>\n
Notes to editors<\/p>\n
Research published today\u00a0shows overall that renewables\u00a0remain\u00a0the cheapest form of electricity generation to build and\u00a0operate\u00a0\u2013 and the more renewables we build, the more often they will set the wholesale market price instead of gas.<\/p>\n
Independent research\u00a0confirms\u00a0that renewables can drive down\u00a0electricity prices, already having reduced wholesale electricity prices by up to a quarter – or around \u00a325\/MWh – in 2024 Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit analysis: Growth in British renewables cutting energy prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n Strike prices for fixed bottom offshore wind\u00a0is\u00a0\u00a391.20\/MWh\u00a0for England and Wales and\u00a0\u00a389.49\/MWh for Scotland, coming out at a blended average of \u00a390.91\/MWh.\u00a0The strike price for floating offshore wind\u00a0is\u00a0\u00a3216.46\/MWh.<\/p>\n In the 2025 Iran-Israel conflict, wholesale gas prices spiked over 15% across a\u00a0week. (ICIS\u00a0–\u00a0independent commodity intelligence services).<\/p>\n The original budget\u00a0for\u00a0fixed bottom\u00a0offshore wind was \u00a3900 million and has been increased to \u00a31.790 million. This follows careful consideration of the bids\u00a0submitted\u00a0by projects, with the budget increased to secure\u00a0additional\u00a0capacity that\u00a0represents\u00a0good value\u00a0for households.<\/p>\n The homes powered estimate reflects the equivalent number of homes that could be powered based on an estimate of the annual generation from the capacity\u202fprocured\u202fin AR7. It is not possible to continuously power a home through intermittent renewables \u2013 this capacity will work alongside the rest of the electricity system to power homes and businesses.\u202fThe estimate is calculated using published subnational electricity consumption data<\/a> \u202fand technology specific load\u202ffactor assumptions published in the CfD\u00a0Allocation Round 7 contract allocation framework<\/a>.\u202fThe actual generation will vary based on site specific factors.<\/p>\n Investment figures are based on\u00a0generation costs data published today for fixed bottom offshore wind only.<\/p>\n Jobs figure based on industry\u00a0figures from Clean Industry Bonus applications.<\/p>\n Research published today shows overall that renewables\u00a0remain\u00a0the cheapest form of electricity generation to build and\u00a0operate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Record\u00a08.4GW\u00a0of offshore wind secured in Europe\u2019s biggest ever offshore wind auction – enough clean electricity to power the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-369073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}