Britain’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round 7 (AR7) has awarded 8.4GW of offshore wind capacity, described as the biggest single procurement of offshore wind in British and European history. The awarded volume is expected to generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of over 12 million homes, as the country targets clean power by 2030, and rising electricity demand is forecast to more than double by 2050.
The government said it has reversed the outcome of Auction Round 5—when no offshore wind projects were secured—after AR6 restarted procurement. AR7 also published cost comparisons using the LCOE metric: the cost of building and operating a new gas-fired power station was put at £147 per megawatt hour, while fixed-bottom offshore wind projects in AR7 averaged £90.9 per megawatt hour (equivalent to £65.3 in 2012 prices), presented as around 40% cheaper than new gas on a build-and-operate basis.
The auction is expected to unlock around £22 billion in private investment and support around 7,000 jobs across the UK. Officials also linked accelerated domestic generation to reduced exposure to fossil-fuel price volatility, citing a 2025 episode when prices rose by over 15% within a week following instability in the Middle East. The announcement also follows budget measures that remove an average £150 of costs from energy bills from April this year.
Contracts were awarded to projects across the UK, including Dogger Bank South off Yorkshire, Norfolk Vanguard off East Anglia, Berwick Bank in the North Sea—described as the first new Scottish project since 2022—and Awel Y Môr as the first Welsh project to secure a contract in more than a decade. Floating offshore wind awards included Erebus in the Celtic Sea and Pentland in Scotland, with investment backing referenced from Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund. Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) said the results add to its operational portfolio of more than 10GW, with an additional 25GW in the pipeline.
Developers and partners welcomed the outcome, with SSE plc citing a CfD for 1.4GW at Berwick Bank B. RWE AG said it secured long-term offtake contracts for five projects in AR7 and highlighted partnerships including KKR on Norfolk Vanguard East and West, Masdar on Dogger Bank South, and collaboration at Awel Y Môr with Stadtwerke München and Siemens.
