The UK’s renewable energy auction has secured around 131 new green infrastructure projects, marking a significant turnaround from last year’s failed auction.

According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), once complete, the projects will generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 11 million homes. The government is under pressure to ramp up renewables quickly after committing to entirely decarbonise the UK’s electricity grid by 2030 in its manifesto.

The results are a marked improvement on the previous auction round in 2023, which saw zero offshore wind projects agreed. The result was seen as a major setback by the renewables industry and was blamed on ministers’ refusal to increase the maximum price for the auction despite a 40% increase in the cost of manufacturing and installing turbines.

In contrast, Labour’s energy secretary Ed Miliband recently announced that the budget for this year’s renewable energy auction was being increased by £500m to over £1.5bn...