‘Biggest clean energy disaster in years’: UK auction secures no offshore windfarms

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨GreyShuck@feddit.uk⁩ to ⁨energy@slrpnk.net⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/08/biggest-clean-energy-disaster-in-years-uk-auction-secures-no-offshore-windfarms

Britain’s offshore wind industry suffered a blow after ministers failed to heed warnings from some of the world’s biggest renewable energy developers that the annual auction was set too low to reflect their soaring costs. No energy companies submitted bids for offshore wind projects, the government confirmed on Friday morning.

The three biggest offshore wind developers in the UK – SSE, ScottishPower and the Swedish company Vattenfall – were forced to sit out the bidding after ministers refused to increase the maximum price for the auction despite a 40% increase in the cost of manufacturing and installing turbines because of inflation.

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breadsmasher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Our government being entirely out of touch with reality. A shock to no one.

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autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:

No new offshore windfarms will go ahead in the UK after the latest government auction, in what critics have called the biggest clean energy policy failure in almost a decade.

Britain’s offshore wind industry suffered a blow after ministers failed to heed warnings from some of the world’s biggest renewable energy developers that the annual auction was set too low to reflect their soaring costs.

Keith Anderson, the chief executive of ScottishPower, said: “This is a multibillion-pound lost opportunity to deliver low-cost energy for consumers and a wake-up call for government.

However, the lack of interest was widely expected, with sources warning on Thursday night that the maximum price had been set too low to attract any bidders.

Ana Musat, RenewableUK’s executive director, told the Guardian earlier this week that the “perfectly avoidable” financial dilemma facing the British wind industry risked removing the UK’s global lead in offshore wind at a time of increased competition from the US, Europe and parts of Asia.

“We can’t have a ‘boom and bust’ cycle and expect to maintain investor confidence in the UK and grow our supply chains,” Musat said.

The original article contains 479 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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MrMakabar@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Propably due to onshore wind becoming more attractive. With the lift of a near ban in England started in 2015, should mean a lot of good onshore sites are available, which propably are better then offshore. At the same time there is a lot of competition for offshore wind from the EU.

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lasagna@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Who’d guess a race for renewables would cause the prices to skyrocket?

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- MrMakabar@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The problem in this case is that there are only two large offshore wind markets, that being Europe and China. Both are relativly separate and the UK has dominated the European market for years, as the other North Sea bordering countries have not auctioned of large areas. That has changed due to the energy war in Europe. So now the UK has to actually compete for skilled workers, spezialiced ships and so forth.
  
  However it will be solved as more demand means more investment and that logically means prices will fall.
  
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- Cypher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  because of inflation.
  
  It’s not an issue specific to renewables it is an issue with the broader economy.
  
  Or have you been living under a rock?
  
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