Offshore wind is one of the few sectors in which cooperation between the UK and the rest of Europe has deepened since Britain’s departure from the EU. Ahead of the North Sea Summit in Hamburg - a format launched by neighbouring countries to strengthen energy security in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s ambassador to Germany, told Clean Energy Wire that London is seeking closer integration with European energy infrastructure and climate initiatives. While approaches differ in how to balance costs, local production, and cross-border interconnections, all North Sea countries share a common ambition to transform the sea into a reliable, secure and climate-friendly source of power, Mitchell said.
The UK also experienced difficulties in the wind sector – Allocation Round 5 (AR5), in which not a single offshore wind project was secured, was a wake-up call. The last auction round, AR6, got the industry back on its feet. Now this latest auction round – AR7 - has secured a record capacity of 8.4GW of offshore wind, the largest auction of its kind in Europe.
How was this turnaround achieved?
Offshore wind is a capital‑intensive, long‑term infrastructure sector, and outcomes can be highly sensitive to broader economic conditions such as inflation, interest rates and supply‑chain constraints. These factors have been felt across the continent and underline why policy certainty and adaptable frameworks are critical for sustaining investment at scale.
In the UK, the offshore wind sector has benefited from the stability and credibility of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism, coupled with a willingness to refine its design as market conditions change. A number of targeted reforms introduced ahead of AR7 helped maintain strong competition and investor confidence. These included updating parameters to better reflect prevailing cost and financing conditions, improving auction flexibility to support project deliverability and giving clearer visibility of the UK’s long‑term deployment pipeline.