UK boosts renewable energy auction efforts to tackle energy security
How does a power like the UK respond to new threats to national energy security? By pressing the accelerator on clean energy. While consolidating its plan to strengthen the nuclear fleet, the UK government is also presenting a new package of measures to support the transition. From fast-tracking the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) renewable energy auction to supporting balcony solar. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband outlined the interventions, also announcing immediate measures to protect consumers regarding fuel prices.
“Global events show there’s no time to lose in our race for clean energy, because there can be no energy security as long as we depend on fossil fuels,” Miliband stated. “I am therefore announcing a series of initiatives to accelerate our clean energy mission: we will bring forward the next state renewable energy auction by months from our most successful auction, we will make plug-in solar available for the first time in Great Britain, and we will accelerate our plan for home heating.”
UK renewable energy auction: Towards a new record?
The decision to speed things up is not too surprising. The latest renewable energy auction – known as Contracts for Difference AR7 – achieved excellent results. And not just because it secured the largest single procurement of offshore wind energy in European history with a record capacity of 8.4 GW. The tender also awarded CfDs to 157 solar farms for a total capacity of 4.9 GW – 50% more than the previous tender – to be built between 2027 and 2029. The strength? The price reached at auction was £65.23 per MWh (about €75), over 10% cheaper than the sixth CfD allocation round.
Furthermore, the auction was combined for the first time with the Clean Industry Bonus, which, with a public investment of £204 million to incentivize employment and national supply chains, generated £3.4 billion in private investment. These resources will flow into the manufacturing sector, factories, and British ports.
Today, the UK is relaunching, and by confirming its intention to open the next renewable allocation round in July 2026, it seeks to offer certainty to investors in the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) sector.
Certainty will also be ensured through streamlining the process. The government has promised to apply the “learnings” from the Fingleton Review – an independent report showing how to cut red tape and accelerate construction sites for new nuclear power – to solar and wind infrastructure and transmission grids, assigning them the same strategic priority and operational urgency reserved for nuclear energy.
Support for balcony solar
The government will collaborate closely with competent bodies, consumer associations, and industry to introduce new standards and modify regulations, aiming to bring plug-in solar panels, also known as balcony solar, to market as soon as possible. This application, popular in some European nations like Germany, had never been regulated in the UK. It offers the great advantage of rapid installation in urban areas, even where suitable roofs or coverings are not available.
Concurrently, the government is committed to accelerating the implementation of the £15 billion Warm Homes Plan, which will provide grants and interest-free loans for solar energy, batteries, heat pumps, and other energy efficiency interventions for British homes.
“Everything we do,” Miliband remarked, “has one purpose: to defend the interests of the British people by taking back control of our energy.”