Solar Power and Wind Power: Finance

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy written question – answered at on 22 October 2020.

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Photo of Caroline Lucas Caroline Lucas Green, Brighton, Pavilion

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much Government funding has been spent on subsidising (a) offshore wind, (b) onshore wind and (c) solar for electricity generation in each of the last three years; and what volume of electricity was generated by each of those modes of generation as a result of those subsidies.

Photo of Kwasi Kwarteng Kwasi Kwarteng The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Subsidies for generating electricity from wind and solar PV are paid under three low carbon electricity schemes: the Renewables Obligation (RO), the Feed-in Tariffs (FIT), and Contracts for Difference (CfD) schemes. The Renewables Obligation does not pay a direct subsidy but instead support is provided through tradeable certificates.

The table below provides a breakdown of payments made to wind and solar PV electricity generators under the RO and CfD schemes in the last three financial years where figures are available[1].

The figures in the tables below refer to Great Britain only. CfD and FIT are not available in Northern Ireland.

Table 1: Breakdown of payments made to offshore wind, onshore wind and solar PV electricity generators by low carbon electricity support scheme:

Scheme

2017-18 (£m)

2018-19 (£m)

2019-20[2] (£m)

Offshore wind

RO2 [3]

2,009

2,221

2,212

CfD[4]

295.8

587.6

1,275.9

Onshore wind

RO2

1,256

1,335

1,271

CfD4

0.0

11.3

88.7

Solar PV

RO2

471

549

460

CfD4

0.8

0.8

1.4

In addition, the following amounts have been spent in total on FITs. The breakdown for wind and solar PV is not available but solar PV accounts for around 79% of total FIT capacity and onshore wind accounts for around 14%[5].

Table 2: Total spending on FITs:

2017-18 (£m)

2018-19 (£m)

2019-20 (£m)

Total FIT spending – all technologies

1,375.1

1,409.0

1,414.7

The amount of electricity generated by these schemes is given in the table below.

Table 3: Generation supported by RO, CfD and FIT for offshore wind, onshore wind and solar PV in Great Britain:

Generation (GWh)

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

Offshore wind

RO2

20,661

21,381

24,150

CfD4

2,621

5,359

9,952

FIT[6]

-

-

-

Total

23,281

26,739

34,101

Onshore wind

RO2

25,409

25,379

27,599

CfD4

-

279

1,539

FIT6

1,851

1,720

1,920

Total

27,260

27,377

31,058

Solar PV

RO2

6,409

7,003

6,710

CfD4

20

28

28

FIT6

4,407

4,983

4,952

Total

10,836

12,015

11,689

Total generation for all renewable technologies is published by BEIS in Energy Trends in 6.1 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-section-6-renewables

[1] Figures are not available broken down by technology for the FITs scheme.

[2] RO figures for 2019/20 are provisional as not all the certificates have been issued yet and the full notional value of each certificate is not yet known.

[3] RO figures are based on Ofgem’s certificate report as at 4 August 2020 from their Renewables and CHP Register.

[4] CfD figures are taken from the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) CfD dashboard, which is available on LCCC’s website.

[5] Taken from OFGEM’s annual report: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/fit/contacts-guidance-and-resources/public-reports-and-data-fit/annual-reports

[6] Estimated

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