Britain launches offshore wind farm incentives scheme
LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Britain opened an incentive scheme on Thursday for offshore wind projects, seeking to persuade developers to provide the investment to meet an ambitious goal of decarbonising the country's energy system by 2030.
The scheme, called the 'Clean Industry Bonus', will provide successful bidders with an initial 27 million pounds ($33.5 million) in funding for every gigawatt (GW) of capacity from offshore wind projects.
Britain has put offshore wind at the heart of its 2030 clean energy plan, setting out in December that it hopes to boost capacity from around 15 GW at present to 43-50 GW by the end of the decade.
The country's grid operator last year described the government's ambition to generate power from 95% clean sources as a huge, but achievable, challenge.
The bonus scheme aims to address some of the challenges Britain is likely to face in meeting that goal by rewarding developers who also commit to building the supply chain infrastructure their projects need.
Britain is due to hold a fresh round of renewable auctions, in which developers bid for government-backed price guarantees for the electricity produced, later this year. The new funding will be delivered through the contracts awarded in that auction.
($1 = 0.8069 pounds)
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What proportion of the tariffs will companies "swallow", and how much will they pass on to their customers? Zooming out, inflation appears to be cooling around the world, although this trend is expected to reverse once tariffs start to fuel higher goods price inflation. Figures on Wednesday showed that U.S. consumer inflation and Japanese wholesale inflation were lower than expected in May. These reports follow similar numbers from Europe recently, and China remains stuck in its battle against deflation. Next up is India, which releases consumer inflation figures on Thursday, which are expected to show annual inflation slowed to 3.0% in May, the lowest in more than six years. Another focus for investors on Thursday will be the auction of 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds. US stocks-bonds warnings flash amber again Calm has descended on U.S. markets following the 'Liberation Day' tariff turmoil of early April. 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They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
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