Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Deferred
Paragraph: 79
Introduce a framework supporting repowering and life extensions for existing onshore wind farms.
Recommendation
We are pleased that the Government is looking at how best to support repowered assets. Replacing old onshore wind turbines with new technologies will help reduce the need for new capacity elsewhere. The Government should introduce a framework which supports the retention of existing onshore wind farms and other renewable assets, for example via the Contracts for Difference scheme, when they need to be repowered. The Government should ensure that the planning regime delivers a clear presumption in favour of repowering and life extensions of onshore wind farms.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response describes Ofgem's investigation into Drax Power Limited and provides a general overview of the biomass industry and its sustainability criteria. This completely deflects from the recommendation to introduce a framework and planning presumption for repowering onshore wind farms.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
79
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
31. The Government is looking at arrangements to support the repowering of renewable assets when they require updating or replacing. 32. Firstly, as part of the DLUHC consultation on updates to the National Planning Policy Framework, the Government considered how the planning framework best encourages the upgrading of existing onshore wind farm sites. This is vital to sustaining existing sites as failure to do so would mean significant losses of cheap electricity generation. It would also mean having to build new infrastructure elsewhere as a substitute, increasing pressure on the environment and local communities. The Government will respond to the consultation in due course. 33. Secondly, the CfD scheme is designed to support renewable electricity generation assets during the earlier stages of development and generation, with the asset expected to become fully exposed to market conditions towards the tail-end of its life. Contracts under the current CfD framework have been tendered on this basis. The Government is aware of growing stakeholder interest in the viability of CfDs for the repowering of assets and understand that this could play an important role in meeting the Government’s net zero and energy security objectives. As such, this was included in the ‘Considerations for future Contracts for Difference (CfD) rounds’ consultation published on 14 December 2022. The Government’s consultation response is due to be published shortly, and will provide more information on the Government’s position.
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