Britain to open $381 mln renewable subsidy auction on Aug. 14 – National Grid
Britain will open its second auction for renewable subsidies, worth 290 million pounds ($381 million) a year, on Aug. 14, National Grid said on Thursday.
Applicants will be invited to submit sealed bids between Aug. 14 and 18, with the winners to be notified on Sept. 11, National Grid said in a market update.
Many offshore wind projects are expected to vie for the subsidies, and turbine developers have said offshore wind bids are likely to fall below that of new nuclear plants.
French utility EDF was awarded a contract which guarantees the new Hinkley C nuclear power station will get a price of 92.5 pounds per pounds/megawatt hour (MWh) for the electricity it produces, which is more than double the current wholesale price of electricity.
The cost of producing electricity from wind farms off the coast of Britain has already fallen 32 percent in the past four years, and averaged around 97 pounds/MWh in the 2015-2016 financial year, an industry report said this year.
As part of extensive reforms to Britain’s electricity market, the government has been changing the way it supports renewable energy by replacing direct subsidies with a contracts-for-difference (CfD) system.
Under the scheme, qualifying projects are guaranteed a minimum price at which they can sell electricity and renewable power generators bid for CfD contracts in a round of auctions.
Contracts worth a total of 315 million pounds were awarded in 2015 following the first auction. ($1 = 0.7610 pounds) (Reporting by Susanna Twidale; editing by Susan Thomas)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
