The government has announced that millions of homes and businesses across Britain will soon be powered by a new wave of clean, affordable, and locally generated energy, thanks to a record-breaking number of projects funded through the government’s most successful renewables auction to date.
Marking a significant step towards achieving clean power by 2030, the latest auction round has secured 131 new green infrastructure projects. This is the largest round ever, with substantial investments in onshore wind, solar, and tidal energy, set to power the equivalent of 11 million British homes.
This year’s auction results show a notable improvement over the previous round in 2023, which saw no offshore wind projects approved.
These outcomes follow the government’s decision last month to increase the auction budget by 50%—a record funding boost that is seven times larger than the previous round’s allocation.
As a result, offshore wind is once again at the forefront in UK waters, playing a pivotal role in the nation’s clean energy mission. Nine contracts have been awarded, including agreements for what will become Europe’s largest and second-largest wind farms, Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4, located off the Yorkshire coast.
This new wave of low-carbon electricity projects is a crucial step towards UK energy independence and security, helping shield families and businesses from volatile global fossil fuel prices.
All projects have been secured at prices well below the auction’s upper limit, ensuring a record amount of clean power at a much lower cost to consumers.
The funding announced today will also drive the creation of new green jobs across the country, boosting prosperity in industrial heartlands and rural communities, and unlocking green economic growth from the Scottish Highlands to the Suffolk coast.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:
We inherited a broken energy policy, including last year’s disastrous auction round which gave us no successful offshore wind 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.
These results show that together, this government and the energy industry are securing investment into our country. This auction has produced a record number of solar projects bolstering our mission for a solar revolution, we have powered forward with onshore wind, secured the largest commercial floating offshore wind project in the world and got the offshore industry back on its feet.
As we accelerate our plan for clean power by 2030 the government will work with the industry on how we can build on this success to ensure we can go even further and faster to deliver the power we need.
The 131 projects this year include:
- the largest offshore windfarm project in Europe – the Hornsea 3 project off the Yorkshire coast
- the largest floating offshore wind project in the world to reach market, Green Volt, which is double the size of Europe’s total installed floating offshore wind capacity
- 6 new tidal projects, building on the UK’s world leading position, with just under half of the world’s operational tidal stream capacity being situated in UK waters
- a combined 115 solar and onshore wind projects, which is more than the total number of projects delivered in the last auction round