The delivery period will be extended from 31 March 2020 to 31 March 2026. The move follows a five-week consultation in July that attracted strong support.
All respondents agreed on the need to extend the delivery period so that future CfD auctions can take place. But a majority considered delivery years for the next allocation round "should be limited to 2021/22 and/or 2022/23".
Even so, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strateg has decided to implement its original proposed amendment which permits delivery years up to 2025/26 "but does not specify the delivery years to which any future allocation round will relate". This, it said "allows the option for future allocation rounds to be run".
Up to £730 million (€869 million) was made available by the government in March to support 4GW of offshore wind and other less-established renewable technologies by 2020.
The consultation drew comments on the need for clarity on CfD timetabling, technological eligibility and budget volumes, and for the need in variations of lead-in times for less-established technologies to be taken into account in designing the CfD regime.
Others raised the potential for including the whole electricity system cost of technologies within the regime, a CfD for use in projects outside the UK, inclusion of remote island offshore wind and the environmental impacts of deep water offshore renewables.
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