SCOTLAND'S offshore industry is "back on track" after three new offshore wind farms were commissioned in a key auction.
The annual Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction lets companies bid for contracts to supply the grid with electricity through renewable energy.
On Tuesday, the UK Government confirmed a total of nine offshore wind farms were commissioned, three of which are based in Scotland.
It comes after zero offshore wind contracts were awarded in last year’s auction, leading SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn to accuse Westminster of putting Scotland’s renewable and economic future “at risk”.
One project has been commissioned in Moray, whilst two have been commissioned in Inch Cape, which is around 15km off the east coast of Scotland.
The projects are a combined size of 339.61 MW and are projected to be completed in 2027/28.
A total of 131 renewable projects were commissioned across the UK, with 37 of them in Scotland. They also include onshore wind farms and solar farms.
The other offshore wind projects will be in East Anglia and Yorkshire, the latter becoming the home of Europe’s largest and second largest wind farm projects.
Government officials said the wave of projects announced on Tuesday will generate enough power for 11 million homes.
The new projects will create about 9.6 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power, compared to 11GW in a similar auction in 2022.
Meanwhile, offshore wind generation will total just 5GW, lower than the 7GW in 2022.
It is roughly half of what is required each year to meet the Government’s target of 50GW of new offshore wind by 2030.
The CfD process started in 2015 as the UK Government’s mechanism for making sure renewable energy schemes are built.
Because clean projects can be expensive, developers bid to secure a guaranteed rate – or strike price – their project will get for every megawatt hour (MWh) of energy it produces in the coming years.
If the price of electricity on the open market dips below that, subsidies will kick in to top up payments to companies. If the price is higher, companies have to pay back the difference.
No new offshore wind development contracts were agreed last year because the price was set too low to meet increasing costs in the industry.
The UK’s Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband (above), said the Labour Government had “inherited a broken energy policy”, adding that the offshore wind industry was “back on its feet”.
Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower, which won contracts for two major offshore wind farms, said offshore is “back on track after last year’s misstep”.
Meanwhile, Ami McCarthy, Greenpeace UK’s political campaigner, said: “This urgently needs to be followed up with a much bigger auction next year, as well as investment for faster grid connections, better planning, and more storage to hold the green power for when it’s needed.”
Scottish Government acting Energy Secretary Gillian Martin (below) said: “We welcome the news that 37 Scottish projects across fixed and floating offshore and onshore wind, solar and tidal stream have successfully secured a CfD award under Allocation Round 6.
“Following the absence of any applications from offshore wind developers to last year’s allocation round, this is a step in the right direction for the sector and demonstrates the importance and capability of Scotland to deliver zero carbon power.
“Scotland’s burgeoning renewables sector has huge potential. We need to see even greater project numbers and renewables capacity delivered through the CfD in future and we will be engaging with industry to understand the implications for projects that were not successful in this year’s allocation round.
“We will continue to work with the UK Government to ensure that maximum support, sufficient budget and more longer-term certainty is provided to Scottish projects in Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 7.”
