Concerns over lack of auctions for onshore wind post-cop26
THE ripples from COP26 will continue to reverberate through the rest of this year and into 2022, as governments firm up their commitments. Already, there is some clarity as to the questions that still remain to be answered right here in the UK.
Simon Steen Moeller, ERG’S Head of International Affairs, highlights some of the questions that ERG would love to see answered.
“What is very clear is that there is no shortage of finance for investing in renewables. However, to unlock that finance, we need much more visibility on key issues,” he says.
For a start, it would be really helpful if there was a lot more visibility as to how the UK is going to treat onshore wind in future.
“Right now there are no dates set for any future auctions for onshore wind, although there have been indications from the UK government that there will be such auctions at some point.
“There is a very clear commitment from the UK government to hold bi-annual auctions for offshore wind sites. However, so far, there is no such clear commitment for onshore sites. We would definitely like to see some positive direction being provided here,” he notes.
It would also be really helpful to have some indication as to what the grid fees will be to link up future onshore and offshore wind farms to the national grid.
At present, the grid connection fees for onshore wind are far higher than they are for photovoltaic projects in England, which is an oddity. Moeller points out that across Europe, there is a lot more clarity on these points.
“If you want to succeed in reaching very ambitious targets, and the UK’S net-zero targets are hugely ambitious, then you need to set out very detailed plans. If you do not, there is no way your targets can be credible.
“One of the worries about the current state of political thinking on climate change in the UK is that there is a lot of talk and hope being placed on technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture, that are not likely to come to fruition or a decade or more.
“It is concerning that some people in government seem to see these nascent technologies as an easy way to reach their climate change targets.
“We too, hope that hydrogen will be an important technology at some point in the future. We may see solid development here by 2030 or so.
“However, there is no certainty at all that the price of power generation from such a technology will come down to levels that are attractive to consumers,” he says.
Much the same can be said of nuclear power, both as far as large scale nuclear reactors and smaller reactors are concerned. They are just not price competitive with wind and solar, nor is there any guarantee that they will be, anytime soon.