The company has 130MW of onshore wind waiting for planning consent and another 800MW in its development pipeline, representing almost 1GW of capacity which it intends to enter in the CfD auctions. But its participation is under threat as Rudd seeks to fulfil the Conservative party manifesto pledge to “halt the spread of onshore wind”.
Scottish Power Renewables chief executive Keith Anderson told Utility Week that the company is engaged with government and intends to prove that allowing onshore wind to take part in the CfD process would lower the overall burden on the levy control framework.
“The conversation we’re having with Government is that if you allow onshore wind to continue to compete in the CfD auctions it will drive down the cost of the overall delivery of the programme because it will compete and it will make other technologies more efficient and more effective,” Anderson said.
“We can show that onshore wind should be allowed to carry on with CfDs and that by doing that we will make onshore wind as competitive as any other generation technology in the UK – then Conservatives will still have implemented their manifesto pledge because onshore wind will be competing at the same level as any other generation technology in the UK,” Anderson added.
The new energy secretary has already cut support for onshore wind through the renewables obligation (RO) scheme a year earlier than planned, and could still shut the door on onshore wind by barring subsidy through the government’s newer CfD mechanism.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate change said an announcement will be made “in due course”.
In an exclusive interview with Utility Week just one day after Rudd announced the RO cuts Anderson laid out the importance of investor certainty, competition between suppliers and the need to think beyond the UK’s immediate targets.
The full interview will appear in the 26 June edition of Utility Week and will be online from Friday.