Onshore wind is not expected to be allocated under the next round of the Contracts for Difference (CfDs) scheme, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said today.
When questioned whether she expected the government to provide contracts for onshore wind, Ms Rudd said: “I wouldn’t, no”.
Under the CfDs, renewable generators will be paid the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time.
The Energy Secretary couldn’t confirm a date for the next allocation round at the Energy and Climate Change Committee hearing. She said: “I will be making announcements on CfD but that won’t be for a little while.”
She added: “I hope the long term signal for developers in this country is the government is committed to its carbon reduction targets and that will help give them confidence.”
Ms Rudd believes the recent announcement to scrap onshore wind subsidies “didn’t come as a surprise”.
She went on: “I appreciate it was disappointing…But I have had three developers wanting to build a wind farm without subsidies.
“The government must keep an eye on everybody’s bills – and that means everybody’s bills.”
Ms Rudd added there is “quite a lot of wind being generated in the UK” and insisted some are “unhappy about the scale”.
She said: “We set the range for onshore wind for 2020/2021 and given the successful deployment up to now and the fact it’s not just the number of wind farms but the fact that they generate more electricity than what was expected. We will be meeting that range.”
The news comes amid concerns the government could cut subsidies for certain solar projects.