UK secures record supply of offshore wind projects

Fantastic news. The UK is making real progress here, and hopefully this will be good news for prices and for energy security in the future.

We're already at 70%+ of our energy coming from non-fossil-fuel sources, much higher than I expected: https://grid.iamkate.com/

UK bills are pretty spicy but at least energy mix is trending in a good direction. Lots of wind, more interconnects, bit of nuclear and solar and with battery tech improving I’m hopeful this will land well eventually

Generally good news; about the price, 9p/unit is lower than retail prices but higher than current spot prices from https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/news-and-insight/data/data-portal/w...

No discussion of what grid upgrades are required, although increasing production near England should reduce that.

(by comparison, ongoing nuclear project Hinkley Point C is currently scheduled to come online some time around 2030, assuming no further delays)

while the führer of the US is doing all he can to stop offshore wind projects

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-cou...

We don't think reason about electricity generation in terms of portfolio construction. Renewables are cheap (although that's debatable in some ways) but volatile.

Great move.

Worked out very well in Germany, which is inspirational. Next up, get rid of the 5 remaining nuclear power plants.

> The government argues that wind projects are cheaper than new gas power stations and will "bring down bills for good", but the Conservatives have accused its climate targets of raising energy costs.

Those for it say it is cheaper electricity, those against it say it is more expensive electricity. The cult members of each side say these are indisputable facts.

All I know is that when the wind blows and the sun shines my electricity costs £0.00 (or less) - I expect this comes at some kind of cost however.

Somebody is not going to like the new windmills! He will fight them like Don Quijote. /s

This hardly matters unless electricity prices for end consumers go down. And that can hardly happen without improved transmission lines and storage. And those are consistently being blocked by NIMBYs.

This is not a matter of policy, but of physics. Producers are far from consumers, in both time and space. Wind turbines are dispersed and far from cities, wind doesn't blow when there is high demand. And yet, these sources are being plugged into a grid that was built over decades under completely different assumptions.

No wonder the energy prices are high.

Edit:

Since some people don't believe that this matters, I'm attaching some basic sources about current state of UK power grid and necessary upgrades.

https://electricalreview.co.uk/2024/09/20/survey-grid-connec...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp84yymxpjno

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68601354

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ofgem-approves-37-bi...

Even in the linked article:

>The 8.4GW secured at this latest auction just about keeps the offshore wind target in reach, several analysts have told the BBC. But all those projects will still need connecting to the grid to generate electricity.

>"Getting that amount of capacity online by 2030 [will be] extremely challenging," said Nick Civetta, project leader at the Aurora Energy Research think tank.