The UK has delivered a record-breaking offshore wind result in its latest renewables auction.
The results deliver the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in British and European history, as the Government strives to bring the UK into a “new era of energy sovereignty and abundance”.
This auction round, known as Contracts for Difference AR7, has secured a capacity of 8.4GW of offshore wind which, the Government claims, will generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 12 million homes.
The auction results will help to keep the Government’s 2030 offshore wind goal on track. However, another 8GW will need to be acquired at next year’s auction if the UK is to meet its offshore wind capacity target of 43-50GW by the end of the decade.
"Getting that amount of capacity online by 2030 [will be] extremely challenging," warned Nick Civetta, Project Leader at the Aurora Energy Research think tank.
Clean power is recognised as essential to tackle the climate crisis, the greatest long-term threat the country faces.
Official figures also show offshore wind is cheaper to build and operate than new gas. In new data published today (14 January) using the LCOE industry metric, the cost of building and operating a new gas-fired power station is £147 per megawatt hour.
By contrast, the results for fixed offshore wind in today’s auction were £90.91 per megawatt hour on average – or £65.25 in the commonly used benchmark of 2012 prices – 40 percent cheaper than the cost of building and operating new gas.
According to the Government, this auction will unlock around £22 billion in private investment, supporting around 7,000 jobs, bringing growth to all regions of the country – and particularly to the country’s industrial heartlands.
Projects have won in every part of the United Kingdom, including fixed offshore wind in:
• Dogger Bank South off the coast of Yorkshire and Norfolk Vanguard off East Anglia – two of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, supporting thousands of jobs
• Berwick Bank in the North Sea – the first new Scottish project since 2022 and the largest planned offshore wind project in the world
• Awel Y Môr – the first Welsh project to win a contract in more than a decade
Winning projects include Erebus, in the Celtic Sea, and Pentland in Scotland, backed by pioneering investment from Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund.
As Britain races to meet rising electricity demand – expected to more than double by 2050 – and cut energy bills, these results and new analysis suggest that offshore wind, alongside solar and onshore wind, remain cheaper to build and operate than gas generation.
By accelerating investment in homegrown clean power, the Government also hopes to reduce the UK’s exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets, which have contributed to half of all recessions since the 1970s, and in 2025 alone, saw prices spike over 15 percent within a week due to global price shocks after global instability in the Middle East.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “With these results, Britain is taking back control of our energy sovereignty.
“This is a historic win for those who want Britain to stand on our own two feet, controlling our own energy rather than depending on markets controlled by petrostates and dictators.
“It is a monumental step towards clean power by 2030, and the price secured in this auction is 40 percent lower than the alternative cost of building and operating a new gas plant.
“Clean, homegrown power is the right choice for this country to bring down bills for good, and this auction will create thousands of jobs throughout Britain.”