Wales has secured a major boost to its clean energy ambitions after a Welsh offshore wind project was confirmed as part of the UK’s largest ever renewables auction.
Awel y Môr has become the first Welsh offshore wind project in more than a decade to win government backing, placing Wales firmly at the heart of Britain’s push to deliver secure, affordable and homegrown clean power by 2030.
This comes as Britain has taken a monumental step towards ending the country’s reliance on volatile fossil fuels and lowering bills for good, by delivering a record-breaking offshore wind result in its latest renewables auction.
The results deliver the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in British and European history – confounding the global challenges facing the industry – a major vote of confidence in the UK’s new era of energy sovereignty and abundance.
The Government inherited the fiasco of the previous government’s failed Auction Round 5, in which not a single offshore wind project was secured. The last auction round, AR6, got the industry back on its feet.
Now this auction round, known as Contracts for Difference AR7, has secured a record capacity of 8.4GW of offshore wind which will generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 12 million homes. The ground-breaking result puts Britain firmly on track to achieve its clean power mission by 2030.
These results show offshore wind is cheaper to build and operate than new gas. In new figures published today using the LCOE industry metric, the cost of building and operating a new gas fired power station is £147 per megawatt hour. By contrast, the results for fixed offshore wind in today’s auction were £90.91 per megawatt hour on average —or [£65.25] in the commonly used benchmark of 2012 prices – 40% cheaper than the cost of building and operating new gas.
This auction will unlock around £22billion in private investment, supporting around 7,000 jobs, bringing growth and good jobs to all regions of the country – and particularly to the country’s industrial heartlands. Clean power is also essential to tackle the climate crisis, the greatest long-term threat the country faces.
Projects have won in every part of the United Kingdom – including fixed offshore wind in:
- Dogger Bank South off the coast of Yorkshire and Norfolk Vanguard off East Anglia – two of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, supporting thousands of jobs.
- Berwick Bank in the North Sea—the first new Scottish project since 2022 and the largest planned offshore wind project in the world.
- And Awel Y Mor—the first Welsh project to win a contract in more than a decade.
These results also represent major progress in our efforts to lead the world in the emerging technologies of the future, floating offshore wind. Winning projects include Erebus, in the Celtic Sea, and Pentland in Scotland, backed by pioneering investment from Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund.
The auction round has secured major infrastructure projects which will be drivers for growth and prosperity in local communities for decades to come. As Britain races to meet rising electricity demand, expected to more than double by 2050, and cut energy bills, these results and new analysis published today shows that offshore wind, alongside solar and onshore wind, remain cheaper to build and operate than gas generation.
In an increasingly unstable world, by accelerating investment in homegrown clean power, the government is also reducing the UK’s exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets, which have contributed to half of all recessions since the 1970s and in 2025 alone, saw prices spike over 15% within a week due to global price shocks after global instability in the Middle East.
This announcement to build more clean, homegrown power follows measures in the budget to cut people’s energy bills, with the government removing an average £150 of costs off energy bills from April this year.
Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband said:
“With these results, Britain is taking back control of our energy sovereignty. This is a historic win for those who want Britain to stand on our own two feet, controlling our own energy rather than depending on markets controlled by petrostates and dictators.
“It is a monumental step towards clean power by 2030 and the price secured in this auction is 40% lower than the alternative cost of building and operating a new gas plant.
“Clean, homegrown, power is the right choice for this country to bring down bills for good and this auction will create thousands of jobs throughout Britain.”
Head of Mission Control, Chris Stark said:
“This is a stonking result for delivering on our mission for clean power by 2030. Amid global headwinds and pressures facing the offshore wind sector in recent years, we’ve secured a record amount of capacity at a competitive price for the consumer.
“We need more offshore wind to meet the increasing demand for electricity in the years ahead, this result powers us towards a future of clean, secure, energy abundance and less reliance on foreign imports.”
Neil McDermott, CEO at the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC), said:
“The results from this allocation round are a prime example of the Contracts for Difference mechanism’s greatest strengths, providing certainty for investors and supporting British jobs across the country.
“At LCCC, we’re proud of our role in managing these contracts, adding to our existing operational portfolio of more than 10 GW with an additional 25 GW in the pipeline, and providing stewardship of these projects for the next two decades.”
Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens said:
“Today’s announcement is huge news for Pembrokeshire and North Wales. It is a massive a vote of confidence in Wales’ clean energy industry which is already delivering the well-paid, highly-skilled jobs of the future with the potential to bring thousands more.
“The UK Government is working with investors to develop home-grown clean power which will secure our energy supply and bring down bills for good. These new projects in the seas off Wales will help us achieve those goals.”
