SSE Renewables has welcomed a decision by the UK government that onshore wind will be allowed to compete in future CfD auctions.

Jim Smith, Managing Director of SSE Renewables, said: "Opening future round of auctions for renewable electricity contracts to onshore wind is welcome news from the UK Government. The UK's CfD auction process has proven to be highly effective at providing a route to market for new renewable generation, in particular offshore wind. The UK's new ambition to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require a huge amount of additional renewable energy generation annually in order to meet that target, so it makes absolute sense that the next round of CfD auctions should be opened up to additional sources of scalable renewable generation, in particular onshore wind energy.

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"Onshore wind has a crucial role to play alongside other important renewable technologies such as offshore wind in generating the low cost green energy needed for the UK to reach net zero. At SSE Renewables we look forward to playing our part to support this growth in new onshore wind energy by developing our 1GW pipeline of onshore projects in GB. This includes the recently announced 11-turbine extension to our existing 35-turbine 70MW Gordonbush wind farm in Sutherland, Scotland, which will enter construction shortly. While we are building Gordonbush subsidy free, we believe it will not be possible to build out the large volume of onshore wind needed to deliver net zero cost-effectively without some form of revenue stabilisation. That's what makes today's announcement very important and welcome.

"In addition to the CfD auctions for new onshore build projects, SSE Renewables believes that a market design is needed which ensures that existing renewable projects can be repowered, so that already operational clean power isn't lost from the system. This design should include a mechanism that maintains a strong carbon price. We look forward to engaging with the UK Government in the months ahead to play our part in supporting the development of the next CfD round."

(MH/JG)