Britain’s offshore wind industry suffered a blow after ministers failed to heed warnings from some of the world’s biggest renewable energy developers that the annual auction was set too low to reflect their soaring costs. No energy companies submitted bids for offshore wind projects, the government confirmed on Friday morning.
The three biggest offshore wind developers in the UK – SSE, ScottishPower and the Swedish company Vattenfall – were forced to sit out the bidding after ministers refused to increase the maximum price for the auction despite a 40% increase in the cost of manufacturing and installing turbines because of inflation.
Propably due to onshore wind becoming more attractive. With the lift of a near ban in England started in 2015, should mean a lot of good onshore sites are available, which propably are better then offshore. At the same time there is a lot of competition for offshore wind from the EU.