Britain launches offshore Wind Farm Incentives Scheme

The UK launched an incentive programme for offshore wind projects on Thursday, hoping to convince developers to invest in order to achieve the ambitious goal of decarbonising its energy system by the year 2030.

The Clean Industry Bonus scheme will give successful bidders an initial funding of 27 million pounds (33.5 million dollars) for each gigawatt (GW), or capacity, from offshore wind project.

In December, Britain announced that it hoped to increase capacity from 15 GW to 43-50 GW within the next decade.

Last year, the country's grid operator described the government’s ambition to produce power from 95% renewable sources as an enormous, but achievable challenge.

The bonus scheme is designed to help Britain meet its goal of reducing poverty by rewarding developers that also build the supply chain infrastructure needed for their projects.

In the UK, a new round of auctions for renewable energy will be held later in this year. Developers can bid to receive government-backed guarantees on electricity prices. The contracts that are awarded at the auction will provide new funding. Reporting by William James, Editing by Peter Graff. $1 = 0.8069 pound.

(source: Reuters)