The government has opened a £160 million fund to support the floating wind sector as MPs launched a wide-ranging inquiry into its plans to decarbonise the UK’s power supply sector.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has requested information from the industry on how to allocate money from the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme.
The fund, which was announced by prime minister Boris Johnson last October, will aid investment in the deep-water port infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities needed to deliver the government’s target of 5GW of floating offshore wind generation by 2030.
In a request for information, BEIS said that more than 1,000 foundations could be required for the 15GW of floating wind capacity already announced through the ScotWind leasing round and the further 4GW of sites due to be leased off the Welsh coast in the Celtic Sea.
The government has earmarked £24 million of subsidies for floating wind projects in the fourth Contracts for Difference allocation round, which is currently taking place.
Johnson, along with business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, have also announced the appointment of Tim Pick as the first UK Offshore Wind Champion.
Pick, who was head of energy, resources and infrastructure at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer until retiring from the law firm last month, will chair the Offshore Wind Acceleration Taskforce, which is designed to coordinate the efforts of companies across the offshore wind sector.
The opening of the £160 million floating wind fund occurred on the same day that the BEIS Committee launched a new inquiry into the government’s plans to decarbonise the UK’s power supply sector.
The inquiry will scrutinise whether the proposed future electricity mix, as announced in its recently published Energy Security Strategy, is the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver power sector decarbonisation by 2035.
The probe will also examine the challenges facing the roll out of low carbon technologies, including offshore wind and nuclear, and the adequacy of the UK’s grid infrastructure.
Darren Jones MP, chair of the BEIS Committee, said: “The government has placed a big bet on new nuclear reactors being built before our current nuclear reactors have to be turned off, hoping that extra nuclear will help to reduce our need for gas power plants. The big question is who will pay for it and will it be done in time?
“Our inquiry will look at how this can be done and whether ministers have put together an energy mix that balances our security of supply, capacity to build and the need to reach net zero.”