The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has invited participation in the Final Investment Decision (FID) Enabling programme. It issued an update today, outlining the form of support available and the qualification criteria.
The programme aims to assist developers of low carbon electricity projects make final investment decisions, ahead of the changes being made to the electricity market. In the mean time, DECC says it wants to "avoid any hiatus in investment".
The government aims to offer investment contracts to successful applicants this autumn, based on the draft strike prices and contract terms that are due for publication in the summer.
By helping developers make final investment decisions this year, it is hoped that project construction might start, earlier than would otherwise have been the case.
Ed Davey, energy and climate change secretary, said the aim was to "give investors and project developers as much certainty as we can, as early as we can."
To qualify for participation in the programme, UK offshore wind projects should be of 100MW or greater capacity. Applicants must also satisfy DECC that there are "credible plans" in place, in order that generation can begin between 2014/15 and 2018/19.
Further, that without an investment contract, there would be a significant risk that electricity generation will not occur, or would be significantly delayed.
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