New North Sea windfarms to get multi-national connections...

I'm wondering how the subsidy and support arrangements will work?

Currently in GB, windfarms bid into the Contract for Difference (CfD) auctions to secure an inflation-linked, fixed price contract for their generation, paid for by GB consumers, on the basis that all the power is flowing into GB, benefitting GB consumers.

Of course if that wind farm is now connected to two or more countries, with the power potentially flowing to different countries, varying continuously depending on wholesale prices, that's a much more complex question of how to determine where the power should flow, how that power should be valued and how the subsidy costs should be apportioned between the different countries and their consumers.

A free market. Hooray!

A free market. Hooray!

If only! I very much doubt the wind farm developers will be willing to build these projects at their own risk, selling into the power markets and receiving market prices. It would probably be safe to assume that they will be expecting countries (i.e. consumers) to provide them with guaranteed power prices.

"Inverkip": The Inverkip power station (so the story goes) was built as a 'commercial' plant that be able to generate into an electricity market. However, it was said to have never generated a watt of commercial power in a market sense.

It's chimney (tall, slender, white) did provide a great navigation landmark for the Clyde sailing community.

It )Inverkip) was mentioned often at local IEE Scotland South West committee meetings (90s-00s ..) when discussing investments, security of supply and black-starts [the things that worry power engineers in side-discussions at such meetings].

All investments had to be 'fully funded' one way or another as they had a proper 'white elephant' on the doorstep. No doubt a lot of the story is apocryphal but with a seam of truth running through it. Major infrastructure is always effectively government investment.

Philip Oakley said:

"Inverkip": The Inverkip power station (so the story goes) was built as a 'commercial' plant that be able to generate into an electricity market. However, it was said to have never generated a watt of commercial power in a market sense.

Before my time, but my understanding is that the CEGB and SSEB oil-fired fleet were planned and largely built before the oil crisis struck, planned to run at high-ish load factors but the oil crisis pushed up heavy fuel oil prices, making them very expensive to run, so limiting them more to peaking operation because of the cost. I understand they ran quite a lot during the miner strikes, which illustrates that there's a lot to be said for having some diversity in fuel types and supply. 

There were quite a few - Littlebrook D, Ince B, Fawley, Inverkip, Grain A, Pembroke A. 

I dare say that you are correct. How disappointing!