The UK Government has awarded contracts for eight new green energy projects, to the tune of £12 billion. The projects, five offshore wind farms and three biomass plants, will create 8,500 jobs in construction and ongoing maintenance. Together, the new developments will be able to generate up to 4.5GW of low carbon electricity, around 4% of capacity and enough to power around three million homes.
The projects fall under the new Contract for Difference (CfD) scheme which guarantees a minimum electricity price over 15 years for renewable energy developers. Funding will be raised by increasing domestic energy bills by 2%, which the Government says will be more than offset by the long term reductions that its overall energy policy will enable.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey explains: ‘You've got, for example, energy efficiency, product standards, which are all reducing the amounts of energy that people need and therefore cutting their bills…If you take the whole package, not only are we reducing people's bills overall but we're getting the secure, clean energy that we need to make sure our consumers and our businesses get the energy they need.’
The eight projects have been named as:
- Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm in Outer Moray Firth, Scotland
- Burbo Bank Extension, Offshore Wind Farm in Liverpool Bay
- Biomass conversion of Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire
- Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm in the Wash, north of Cromer in Norfolk
- Hornsea 1 Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea, off the Yorkshire coast
- Biomass conversion of Lynemouth Power Station in Ashington, Northumberland
- Teesside Biomass Power Station with Combined Heat and Power in Middlesbrough
- Walney Extension, Offshore Wind Farm in the Irish Sea.
Wilding says: ‘These new contracts are fantastic news for the renewables sector and the British economy as a whole. They’ll support skilled jobs and boost business growth around the country. Together, they’ll also help provide a secure, affordable electricity supply for the future, contributing around 15TWh or 14% of the green energy we need to meet our 2020 renewable energy generation target.’
Sources: Daily Telegraph and Gov.uk
