Renewables Subsidies Hit New August Record
by David Turver 29 September 2024 5:00 PM
The Low Carbon Contract Company (LCCC) manages the Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy scheme and publishes data to show how much it costs us. The data is usually published about 10 days in arrears and sometimes is adjusted. Now, we have the full data for August 2024, and it has settled down enough for some reasonable analysis.
Overall Subsidy Levels Rising
The headline is that overall CfD subsidies rose sharply in August 2024, recing a total of £237 million – the third highest total on record and by far the highest level for the month of August (see Figure 1).
The total is up £84.2 million from July’s total. The main driver of the increase is offshore wind, which is up £74.5 million from a month ago. This August’s total is also up £123.8 million from August 2023. Since August last year, offshore wind subsidies are up £72.3 million, biomass conversion £35 million, biomass with CHP up £10.2 million and onshore wind £5.1 million.
There are several factors driving the increase in subsidy since last year. First and most obviously, more wind farms have now activated their CfDs since last year. Moray East and Hornsea Project 2 offshore projects came online earlier this year, as did the Sneddon onshore wind farm. Moreover, the CfD part of Drax biomass plant was not used at all last August, but it attracted £25.6 million in subsidies in August 2024.
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/29/record-august-renewables-subsidies/
