SSE PLC (LSE:SSE), Orsted and ScottishPower are among firms to have secured contracts under the UK’s latest green energy allocation round.
After no bids were submitted in last year’s auction, nine offshore wind contracts were awarded in the UK’s sixth allocation round, the government announced on Tuesday.
These come alongside a wider string of green energy projects which combined will provide enough power for some 11 million homes.
SSE saw its 130.5 megawatt Cloiche Wind Farm awarded a contract for difference under the round, guaranteeing a price for the power it produces.
Other wind farm developers ScottishPower and Denmark’s Orsted also won contracts, for their Hornsea 4 and East Anglia 2 sites respectively.
ScottishPower chief executive Keith Anderson noted offshore wind was “back on track” following last year’s “misstep,” which saw lower offered prices fail to attract any developers.
Stephen Wheeler, managing director at SSE Renewables, added guaranteed prices under the contracts for difference secured a “route to market” for projects and was “critical to delivering new homegrown green energy”.
SIMEC’s MeyGen 2 tidal stream project was among other green energy projects to secure a new contract, which will see the site expanded and guaranteed £172 per megawatt hour.
Britain’s government hiked the maximum strike prices, which guarantee income for developers, offered in the latest auction.
This meant developers could be offered up to £73 per megawatt hour, against £44 previously, with both Orsted and SSE reporting theirs were lower but based on 2012 prices, meaning inflation since would have taken the contract values higher.