Last week, Danish offshore wind farm developer Orsted announced that it would be pulling out of its 2.4 GW Hornsea 4 project. “Orsted has taken the wind out of Miliband’s Net Zero sails”, said the Times, citing the developer’s economic problems influencing the decision. Meanwhile, Miliband is reported to be considering boosting the subsidies available to green generators, according to the Telegraph, “to prop up his ailing green power target”. But the rising costs are not the only message from reality that Miliband’s crusade is likely to end in catastrophic failure.
Orsted won the commission to develop the Hornsea 4 wind farm at last year’s renewable energy Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, the sixth. As we reported here, Miliband claimed that this bidding was the most successful auction yet and represented the new Labour Government’s commitments to saving the planet bearing fruit. But in fact, it had been the preceding Conservative government that had made the parameters of the auction more favourable, following the fifth auction (AR5) failing to attract any bids from offshore wind developers. Outgoing Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho (now seemingly a Net Zero policy sceptic) boosted the CfD subsidies for offshore wind farms by a whopping 60% of the preceding auction’s price.
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