The British government wants contracts awarded to renewable energy projects to generate over 1.1 GW of power for the country, once operational.
UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey made the declaration when announcing the award of investment contracts worth more than £315m ($489 million) to 27 renewable energy projects in the first allocation round of its new contracts-for-difference (CfD) scheme.
The scheme gives renewable power generators certainty of a minimum electricity price over 15 years. It will replace the Renewables Obligation, the main support mechanism for large-scale renewables projects, which runs out in 2017.
The projects include two offshore wind farms, 15 onshore wind farms and five solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change said in a statement.
“These projects could power 1.4 million homes, create thousands of green jobs and give a massive boost to home-grown energy while reducing our reliance on volatile foreign markets,” Davey said.
The government said funding for CfDs for renewables and carbon capture and storage technology could rise to more than 1 billion pounds per year by 2020/21.
