Over one year on from the publication of the UK’s Offshore Wind Champion report and weeks away from a General Election, Danielle Lane, RWE’s Director of Offshore Wind Development (UK and Ireland) spoke at Global Offshore Wind 2024.
In this thought piece, Danielle reflects on the key themes from the conference, including the challenge of minimising household electricity costs , against a backdrop of an increasingly complex and costly regulatory environment.
RWE is at the forefront of the UK offshore wind industry, with over 14GW of offshore wind either in operation, construction or development (9.8GW pro rata, based on equity share). This positions us at the heart of a potential major UK success story, but also means we are aware of the significant challenges to be addressed for the UK to fully realise its potential in offshore wind.
The industry faces the challenge of balancing cost minimisation for consumers with rising investment and regulatory costs. Supply chain pressures, interest rates, inflation, and geopolitical factors like the war in Ukraine have all increased costs significantly. It is critical that we are collectively focused on minimising the cost of electricity to the consumer.
The regulatory environment for offshore wind has become more complex and costly. Projects have to meet multiple additional criteria through the consent, leasing and CfD processes which are not mutually supportive, and can lead to greater inefficiencies and higher costs for developers.
Offshore wind can drive economic growth and job creation.
We fully support the policy objective to grow the supply chain, and increase delivery capacity, but there is a risk developers effectively become a conduit for subsidies. Subsidies may be better targeted directly where needed within the supply chain.
The offshore wind industry has immense potential to drive economic growth and accelerate the green transition. With a unified focus, the benefits to the UK are substantial: economic growth, prosperity, lower emissions, and energy independence.
