The funding is part of the Contracts for Difference scheme, which guarantees energy producers a minimum price for every MWh of electricity they produce. During the fourth iteration of the scheme - details of which were announced this week - the government will try to secure twice the renewable capacity of the previous round, in theory generating more electricity than the previous three rounds (starting in 2014) combined.
In the latest funding round, £200m will go towards supporting offshore wind. The UK has just over 10GW of offshore wind capacity – bearing around 35 per cent of its global capacity – and the government hopes for this to reach 40GW by 2030. Last month, the business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told the Telegraph on Sunday that, “My understanding is that the point at which we no longer need to keep subsidising [offshore wind] has almost arrived.”
£10m will go towards the category called “established technologies”, such as onshore wind and...