The largest onshore windfarm in England in a decade has been awarded a government subsidy among 190 contracts for energy projects, as Labour attempts to hit a goal of creating a virtually zero carbon power grid within four years.
The government said it would offer contracts to a record number of solar projects alongside support for onshore windfarms including the huge Imerys project near St Austell in Cornwall. Labour lifted a de facto ban on new onshore windfarms after returning to power in 2024.
Contracts were awarded to 157 new solar farms and 28 new onshore windfarms after ministers doubled the amount of funding available to developers in a make-or-break auction for Labour’s goal to create a clean electricity system in Great Britain by 2030. The government also issued subsidy contracts to four tidal power projects.
The winners were informed on Tuesday morning, three weeks after the government awarded subsidy contracts to enough offshore windfarms to power 12m homes by the end of the decade. In total, the government’s new renewable energy contracts will supply enough electricity to power the equivalent of 16m UK homes.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said: “These results show once again that clean British power is the right choice for our country, agreeing a price for new onshore wind and solar that is more than 50% cheaper than the cost of building and operating new gas.”
Under the latest contracts, solar farms will be paid £65.23 a megawatt hour (MWh) in 2024 prices, while onshore windfarms will earn £72.24/MWh. If prices on the wholesale electricity market are below this price then developers will receive top-up payments levied on household energy bills but, if the market price is higher, bill payers will have the difference returned to them.
The support prices for onshore renewables are well below those offered to offshore windfarms. Standard windfarms fixed to the seafloor will earn between £89.49 a megawatt-hour (MWh) and £91.20/MWh through the latest auction and a new generation of floating windfarms that will earn £216.49/MWh.
“By backing solar and onshore wind at scale, we’re driving bills down for good and protecting families, businesses, and our country from the fossil fuel rollercoaster controlled by petrostates and dictators,” Miliband added. “This is how we take back control of our energy and deliver a new era of energy abundance and independence.”