UK offshore wind is dead in the water – as predicted
Thursday 20th July 2023 | Press Release
London, 20 July – As one of the world’s biggest windpower developers halts its top UK wind project and warns about further cancellations, Net Zero Watch reminds ministers that they have been warned for years about this inevitable fiasco.
Vattenfall, an international mega-developer of windpower, has put the UK’s giant 1.4 GW offshore wind project Boreas on ice, claiming that rising costs have made the Contract for Difference, awarded last year for £45/MWh (2023 prices), uneconomic (“Key UK offshore wind project axed in blow to climate plans“).
Net Zero Watch, amongst others (see publications listed below), has long warned that the low CfD bids made in the UK had no basis in economic reality. The capital and operating costs of wind power, particularly offshore are still very high. This technology is unattractive and imposes very high system costs when compared to gas generation even at today’s elevated prices. It is completely uneconomic if the gas prices continue to revert to their historic levels.
Net Zero Watch notes that Vattenfall has said it will be considering the future of all is wind projects in the Norfolk zone, with a total of 4.2 GW, placing pressure on the UK government to make extra support available to ensure construction and meet the targets for offshore wind.
Professor Gordon Hughes (University of Edinburgh), the author of many of the studies exposing the reality of wind power costs, said:
https://www.netzerowatch.com/uk-offshore-wind-is-dead-in-the-water-as-predicted/
