Picture: Orsted. Pictured: Hornsea 2
Commissioned by the Authorities’s Division for Power Safety and Internet-Zero (DESNZ) and revealed by Baringa, the report warns that Britain might want to improve its coordination of provide chains whether it is to attain its imaginative and prescient of internet hosting 50GW of put in offshore wind capability by 2030.
This goal is included within the Power Act, which obtained Royal Assent late final 12 months.
The report warns that there’s a ‘high’ or ‘medium-high’ threat of capability constraints in provide chains for eight key kinds of elements for offshore wind farms and associated transmission infrastructure this decade.
These embrace vessels, export cables and floating foundations for next-generation floating wind farms. Such initiatives will be positioned in deeper waters and host taller, extra highly effective generators, and are actually eligible to obtain ring-fenced funding via the Contracts for Distinction (CfD) public sale course of.
The report hints at the advantages of rising a UK-based manufacturing base for these elements, stating: “the size of floating foundations means they are slow and costly to tow, and vulnerable to weather-related disruptions, so local fabrication is desirable… (and) would also contribute to the industrialization and commercialization of the technology, therefore enabling greater reduction(s) in costs for developers.”
No key elements for offshore wind farms are classed as having a ‘low’ or ‘medium-low’ threat to provide chain disruptions from capability constraints.
The report highlights that British offshore wind initiatives are “heavily dependent on securing a financially viable CfD offer”.
At the latest CfD public sale spherical, in September 2023, no profitable bids have been made for offshore wind costs. Builders criticised the Authorities for failing to account for skyrocketing provide chain prices.
In response, the maximum strike price for the next round has been increased by up to 66% depending on project type. DESNZ has additionally set out plans to start paying builders premiums for ‘non-price factors’ resembling rising native provide chains and expertise bases.
Planning and connection woes
Immediately’s new evaluation concludes that offer chain constraintss, whereas they do exist for photo voltaic and onshore wind, are “most severe” for offshore wind and offshore transmissions.
“For onshore wind and grid-scale solar PV, securing planning consent and grid connections arguably outweigh supply chain issues as constraints,” the report summarises.
That is partly as a result of onshore renewables don’t require as many elements, resembling advanced foundations, set up vessels and converter stations, like offshore wind farms do.
The UK Authorities is at the moment working with Ofgem, Nationwide Grid and the Nationwide Infrastructure Fee (NIC) to streamline the planning permission for renewable vitality initiatives giant sufficient to be deemed ‘nationally significant’’. Such projects have seen timescales increase by around two-thirds since 2012.
Collaboration and trials are additionally underway to assist unlock the planning course of and liberate the grid for smaller arrays.
According to previous Centrica researchthere are some 371GW of renewables and battery undertaking within the connections queue throughout the UK.
The UK Authorities is aiming for the nation to host 70GW of solar capacity by 2035, up from around 14.5GW at present. It has no set goal for scaling onshore wind which, till just lately, had been subjected to a de-facto ban.
