LONDON (Reuters) - The British government confirmed on Wednesday up to 557 million pounds of funding for the next clean electricity auctions for less-established renewables.
The next so-called contracts-for-difference (CfD) auction will take place in spring 2019, the government said in a statement but has not yet confirmed how much will be available for that auction.
Less-established renewables include offshore wind, biomass, energy-from-waste technologies and some combined heat and power projects, a government spokesman said.
Under the CfD scheme, qualifying projects are guaranteed a minimum price at which they can sell electricity and renewable power generators bid for CfD contracts in a round of auctions.
The results of the last CfD auction were released last month. In that auction, the cost of new offshore wind power fell below new nuclear generation for the first time.
The eleven renewable energy projects which won contracts were expected to deliver up to 3 gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generation capacity from 2021-2023, with the contracts worth up to 176 million pounds a year.
Offshore wind is one of the more expensive forms of renewable energy, but the government said it will continue to support the technology as long as costs come down.
The government is expected to publish its Clean Growth Strategy plan soon, which will include proposals on reducing emissions from housing, business, transport and the power sector.