The Government has announced the largest ever budget for the upcoming Contracts for Difference auction round with £800m pledged for offshore wind.

The budget for the sixth Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round – confirmed by the Chancellor at Spring Budget – has been raised following the disappointing previous round.

In total, the Allocation Round 6 (AR6) budget includes: £120m for established technologies such as onshore wind and solar, £105m for emerging technologies such as floating offshore wind and geothermal, including a ringfenced £10m budget for tidal for a second consecutive year, and the £800m for offshore wind.

Since 2010, the UK has seen £300 billion of public and private low carbon investment. A further £100 billion of private investment is expected for the UK’s energy transition by 2030, which could support up to 480,000 jobs, including 90,000 jobs in the offshore wind sector.

The extra £120m for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator now takes its total funding to over £1bn and will boost advanced manufacturing across clean energy supply chains.

Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “When it comes to renewables, we have a record to be proud of. In 2010, just 7 per cent of our electricity came from renewables, this is now up to over 40 per cent today.”

The Government says it is also making progress on the network reforms announced at last year’s Autumn Statement. This includes offering earlier grid connection dates to projects worth £40bn, alongside transmission network companies announcing investment plans worth up to £85bn. From next January, a new process will ensure that only projects which can show progress will be offered a connection date to join the grid.

A new public register of community benefits for transmission network infrastructure will be published to ensure developers are held accountable for delivering ambitious community benefit packages in local communities where new infrastructure is built. A new taskforce, to be chaired by Julian Smith, has also been announced to help un-block disputes between landowners and electricity network operators.

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