Yesterday, the government released the results of the fourth round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, securing almost 11GW of renewable capacity across 93 projects, nearly double the 5.8GW awarded in Allocation Round 3 in 2019.
The greatest capacity – at 7.0GW – has been secured from new offshore wind projects, which compete within its own Pot. This compares to 5.5GW secured in Allocation Round (AR) 3, while Cornwall Insight estimates that nearly 9GW of offshore wind capacity likely entered the auction. The additional 7.0GW of offshore wind capacity will be added to an already operational or contracted capacity of 19.6GW across the Renewables Obligation and CfD schemes combined. The all-in total of 26.6GW is still notably shy of the 50GW offshore wind target by 2030 that government set in its Energy Security Strategy earlier this year.
