Contracts for Difference

The success of unsubsidized clean power facilities in the country – whether driven by corporate power purchase agreements or selling direct to the wholesale electricity market – has prompted the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ponder whether contracts-for-difference payments will be fit for purpose in the years ahead.

Big brands will have to put their money where there mouth is on carbon commitments, though, and the EU will have to put its shoulder to the wheel, particularly in respect of the commonly-heard call to dispense with red tape. The prize could be a call for 280 GW more renewables capacity by 2030.

Developers dodged more onerous supply-chain and carbon-footprint commitments in the results of a recent consultation exercise announced by BEIS but appear set to lose all Contracts for Difference top-up payments during periods of negative electricity prices.

pv magazine spoke to Mark Jones, chief executive of privately-owned clean energy investment company Susgen about where the newly-launched business is looking to spend the cash pile it has allocated for big, early-stage project pipelines.

The Romanian government has decided to re-introduce directly negotiated Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to boost investment in its renewables sector, but only projects commissioned after June 1, 2020 will be eligible.

Analyst Cornwall Insight said the figure, drawn from its Renewable Pipeline tracker, related only to the proportion of the nation’s 13 GW solar pipeline which had already applied for or secured planning permission.

The announcement by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of an auction which will include solar next year appears to back prime minister Boris Johnson’s claims to be serious about the nation’s net-zero carbon ambition.

Although PV trails wind and nuclear in terms of its anticipated future footprint, the opposition party’s attempt to outflank left of center rivals on climate change has resulted in one of the world’s most ambitious national roadmaps towards a zero-carbon future.

Renewables investment may by hit by rising interest rates despite the falling cost of clean energy tech just as fossil fuels avoid the impact of rising base rates.

The latest government figures show utility scale solar had near-zero growth in 12 months. Although excluded from the Contracts for Difference procurement regime, large scale projects may experience a resurgence thanks to unsubsidized schemes linked to bilateral power supply deals, with the Solar Trade Association predicting 400 MW of such projects may be finalized this year.