Ed Miliband ‘poised to miss' 2030 offshore wind targets
Ed Miliband will likely miss his 2030 offshore wind targets by a large margin amid a lack of investor appetite, a report has warned.
The Energy Secretary's ambition for British offshore windfarm capacity to hit 43 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the decade is looking out of reach, analysis by BloombergNEF found.
Mr Miliband will fall 10GW short of his target, the energy research consultancy predicted.
It comes after Ørsted recently pulled out of plans to double the size of the Hornsea project off the East Yorkshire coast. The Danish offshore wind developer, which is the world's largest, blamed its decision on rising costs. The expansion would have generated enough electricity to power 2.6m homes.
Energy giant SSE is also slowing investment in a project to build the world's largest offshore wind farm on Scotland's east coast. The project was met with resistance from wildlife charities, which claimed it would kill and displace 31,000 seabirds.
Efforts to expand offshore wind have been struggling in the face of high interest rates, difficulties in sourcing components and an expected decline in long-term electricity prices.
This has rendered some government subsidy contracts, known as contracts for difference, unviable. A contract for difference guarantees developers a minimum price for their electricity once it is generated. However, ballooning costs mean some agreements struck in the past no longer make financial sense.
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