The projects, announced today by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), were awarded under the “less established technologies” category and include the 85 MW Grangemouth Renewable Energy CHP plant and Rebellion Biomass’s 0.64 MW CHP plant.
The winning waste-to-energy or “advanced conversion technologies” plants, which use waste gasification or pyrolysis, are the 15 MW Drakelow Renewable Energy Centre, the 0.05 MW Station Yard CFD1, the 25.5 MW Northacre Renewable Energy Centre, the 10.2 MW IPIF Fort Industrial REC, the 5.56 MW Blackbridge TGS 1 Limited, and the 8 MW Redruth EfW plant.
Together, the eight projects will generate 150 MW.
Under the CfD scheme, generators are paid the difference between the ‘strike price’ – a price for electricity which reflects the cost of investment in a particular low carbon technology – and the ‘reference price’, a measure of the average market price for electricity in the UK market.
The strike price for the majority of the projects was £74.75 /MWh, with the strike price for the Redruth EfW plant set at £40/MWh.
Most of the schemes are located in England, although the Grangemouth CHP plant is in Scotland and Station Yard ACT is in Wales.
James Court, head of policy and external affairs at the Renewable Energy Association (REA), said the auction showed “huge price reductions across the board, with offshore wind, energy-from-waste and biomass clearing at prices from £57.50 [for two offshore wind projects] to £74.75.
“These results show that renewables are now the most cost effective form of any energy generation which can future proof both the UK grid and provide sustainable new jobs in the UK.”
He added: “Surely now is the time for the government to commit to a low carbon industrial strategy.”
Source: Decentralised Energy