Net Zero Watch brands new windfarm subsidy ‘obscene’
Green Volt project could be handed annual half billion pound subsidy
Net Zero Watch has revealed the astonishing scale of subsidies likely to be received by a windfarm planned for Scottish waters. The Green Volt floating offshore windfarm could hand its backers around £500 million pounds per year in subsidies. The project received official approval from Marine Scotland last week.
Because it is a floating windfarm, it is eligible for a much higher level of subsidies than fixed-bottom or onshore windfarms. At the launch of the most recent subsidy auction, the Government announced that it had raised the maximum price for floating windfarms to around £240 per megawatt hour [1], around four times current market prices. If the whole windfarm is subsidised at this level, consumers will end up having to pay more than £500 million per year in subsidy [2].
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said:
At a time when families are already struggling, this is obscene. It is clear that the Government has completely lost control, and the renewables industry is simply writing themselves blank cheques whenever they like.
Notes for editors
| Calculation of expected subsidy | |
|---|---|
| a) Capacity (MW) | 560 |
| b) Assumed capacity factor [3] | 57% |
| c) CfD price per MWh | £243 |
| d) Assumed market price [4] | £60 |
| e) Subsidy £m = (a)×(b)×8760×(c-d) | 512 |
[1] In 2024 prices. Contracts for Difference are awarded in 2012 prices and then uplifted for inflation. The price announced for offshore capacity was £176/MWh, equivalent to £243 in current pries.
[2] Subsidy at this level would require Greenvolt to be successful in several consecutive CfD auctions.
[3] Based on the capacity factor achieved by the extant Hywind floating windfarm
[4] Approximate average since start of February.