Insight
UK awards 190 renewable contracts, including largest new English onshore windfarm in a decade
The UK government has awarded 190 subsidy-backed contracts across solar, onshore wind, offshore wind and tidal projects, aiming to support a near-zero-carbon power grid by 2030. The latest auction includes the largest new onshore windfarm in England in a decade and a record number of solar schemes.
The government has expanded support for renewables by doubling available funding in its latest contracts-for-difference auction, awarding contracts to 157 solar farms, 28 onshore windfarms, eight offshore windfarms and four tidal projects. Collectively, the contracted projects are expected to supply electricity equivalent to powering 16 million UK homes.
A notable outcome is the Imerys onshore wind project near St Austell in Cornwall (20MW), described as the largest onshore windfarm to be built in England in a decade following the lifting of a long-standing de facto ban. However, the scale of English onshore wind remains modest compared with Scotland, where much larger projects (up to 186MW) also secured contracts.
Strike prices were set at £65.23/MWh for solar and £72.24/MWh for onshore wind (both in 2024 prices). Under the mechanism, consumers fund top-up payments when wholesale prices fall below the strike price, and receive paybacks when market prices exceed it—creating a clearer revenue floor for developers and a symmetric consumer protection feature.
Cost signals suggest a shift in market conditions: solar prices fell versus last year’s auction, while onshore wind prices rose slightly and are reported to be more than 20% above 2022 lows due to macroeconomic and supply-chain pressures. For delivery teams, this points to the need for tighter cost control, earlier procurement strategies, and realistic assumptions on future price declines while scaling build-out to meet 2030 targets.
Source article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/10/uk-onshore-windfarm-new-green-energy-projects-contracts