Round 3 auction: a big day for Dogger Bank and HVDC by David Foxwell in Riviera Martime Media contains Alun Roberts initial thoughts following the announcement of the UK Round 3 CfD auctions.

Quotes include:

  • “The big news from today’s CfD allocation round is not only the game-changing low prices but also that 5 GW of the circa 5.6 GW will be built using HVDC grid connections,” he said.
  • “On the face of it, the results are disappointing news for Scotland, with only 466 MW of offshore wind successful,” said Mr Roberts. “This has big implications for the ScotWind leasing round.”
  • “It’s hard to see what can be done on grid charges and the hope for Scotland will be that the next generation of turbines forces all projects to use jackets, thereby closing the gap between shallower and deeper projects,” he said.
  • “Perhaps, at that point, Scotland’s superior wind speeds could then give its windfarms a competitive advantage? Or maybe the results force a differentiating strategy focused on floating?”
  • “With East Anglia Three in England also unsuccessful, Mr Roberts believes the lesson is that developers can compete being far offshore or in deep water, but you can’t compete with both, at least not yet.”

You can read the article in full here: Round 3 auction: a big day for Dogger Bank and HVDC