A record 8.4GW of offshore wind has been secured in Europe’s biggest ever offshore wind auction.
The government says that “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 delivered the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in British and European history, confounding the global challenges facing the industry and providing a major vote of confidence in the sector.
Following the previous government’s failed Auction Round 5, in which not a single offshore wind project was secured, the last round, AR6, got the industry back on its feet and now with this auction round, known as Contracts for Difference AR7, a record capacity of 8.4GW of offshore wind has been secured 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, says the government.
The results show that offshore wind is cheaper to build and operate than new gas. In new figures published on 14 January 2026 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 the latest 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.
The latest auction will unlock around £22bn billion in private investment, supporting around 7,000 jobs, bringing growth and jobs to all regions of the country – and particularly to the country’s industrial heartlands.
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 Môr – the first Welsh project to win a contract in more than a decade.
The results also represent major progress in the government’s 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, says the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. “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,” it said in a statement.
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 at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, 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.”
Dhara Vyas, CEO of Energy UK, said: “Today’s auction results will deliver critical national infrastructure that will strengthen our energy security and deliver lower bills, as well as provide jobs, investment, and economic growth right across Great Britain. It’s more important than ever that we invest in securing our future energy needs to meet the growing demand for power over the coming decades and provide the cheap, plentiful electricity essential to our economic growth. Offshore wind is crucial as part of our growing fleet of wind farms across the country, which reduced wholesale electricity costs by a third last year.”
Ana Musat, executive director of policy at RenewableUK, said: “This is a great result for Britain’s energy security and for hard-pressed billpayers, because these new offshore wind farms will generate the power we need at a lower cost than new gas or nuclear plants, and at a stable and predictable price. The UK has made the right decision to roll out renewables at speed and at scale, giving our country greater energy security and protecting consumers against volatile global gas prices which caused the last energy crisis. Homegrown power is the best defence against geopolitical volatility and this auction is a significant step forward towards energy independence.”
