Wind

  • Media Mentions

    CNN Business | 2030 offshore wind target

    Tom Edwards Senior Modelling Consultant at Cornwall Insight discussed the offshore wind target with CNN Business he explained that costs for offshore wind will decline further over time as development increases. While offshore wind farms cost about twice as much to set up as onshore wind farms, they produce a...

  • Press Releases

    The Renewables Obligation Certificate market risks being oversupplied

    Forecasts from Cornwall Insight highlight the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) supply and demand gap will be narrower in the 2020-21 compliance period than in previous years, due to lower overall electricity demand expectations. In fact, there is a material risk of ROCs being oversupplied should certain conditions arise, which would...

  • Press Releases

    Wind generation’s share of non-coal merchant revenues increased 30% in three years

    The energy transition is having a significant effect on merchant revenues for different generation types across the NEM. Research from Cornwall Insight Australia suggests wind generation captured almost half of the total spot market revenues in New South Wales (NSW) last quarter, accounting for more than gas and hydro’s share...

  • Media Mentions

    Icon | 46GW required to meet targets

    Forecasts from our ‘Benchmark power curve’ suggesting that up to ~46GW of new build renewable technology, ~11GW onshore wind, ~10GW solar and ~25GW offshore wind, may need to be developed by 2030 was featured in Icon. The net zero target is defining the shape of the future power market in...

  • Press Releases

    New competition for upcoming Capacity Market auctions

    Research from Cornwall Insight’s Capacity Market Forecast highlights that the recent changes in Capacity Market (CM) rules and the technology mix will see greater competition and change in the technology entering* the T-4 auction in March 2021 compared to the previous T-4 auction. Forecasted changes to the technology mix entering...

  • Media Mentions

    S&P Global Market Intelligence | European wind developers

    James Brabben Wholesale Manager at Cornwall Insight talked to S&P Global about the wind developers in Europe. He explained that 20 projects in the UK with a combined capacity of 665 MW have applied to either extend sites with additional turbines or replace existing machines with larger models. The time...

  • Press Releases

    Extensions and repowering onshore wind key to supporting net zero target

    Repowering and extensions of existing onshore wind sites in GB have yet to receive the same attention from policymakers as new build. However, without repowering activity, the current ~13GW onshore wind fleet could start to reduce in size from 2027 when many Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) accreditations end. Cornwall Insight’s...

  • Media Mentions

    Current | Costs of renewables fall

    Tom Edwards, Senior Modelling Consultant at Cornwall Insight spoke to current on the costs of deploying renewable electricity continuing to fall. He explained how the figures also show that hurdle rates for solar and wind have come down since the 2016 report, “while hurdle rates for traditional thermal technologies remain...

  • Press Releases

    Solar power responsible for paying 20% of total FCAS regulation costs

    Latest research from Cornwall Insight Australia shows that solar farms are responsible for paying somewhere between 10%-20% of total regulation FCAS costs in any given month (see Figure 1). This is disproportionate to solar’s energy generation in the NEM, which in FY20, was only ~3%. In contrast, wind is far...

  • Press Releases

    Divergence in merchant value together with complementary wind and solar shapes creates new opportunities for hybrid projects

    Research from Cornwall Insight Australia examined the performance of wind and solar technologies against the time-of-day price shape, highlights a clear divergence in the merchant outlook for both technologies. This presents a real opportunity for collaborative and hybrid projects to maximise developers’ value. Key findings From FY19 to FY20, average...

  • Media Mentions

    The Guardian | National Grid using coal

    Tom Edwards commented on National Grid using a coal-fired power station for the first time in 55 days in The Guardian today. I feel solidarity with the power stations finding it too hard to do anything today.Tom Edwards, Senior Modelling Consultant The Guardian

  • Media Mentions

    PowerTechnology | More renewable technology required

    Research from our market and asset-level power price modelling service ‘Benchmark power curve’, predicting that up to ~46GW of new-build renewable technology ̶ ~11GW onshore wind, ~10GW solar, and ~25GW offshore wind may need to be developed by 2030 was featured in PowerTechnology today. The net zero target is defining...

  • Media Mentions

    Insight Energy | Hydrogen could boost offshore wind

    Our research on the focus on hydrogen potentially boosting offshore wind was featured in Insight Energy The total energy input needed for hydrogen production ranges from 190TWh in Consumer Transformation to 736TWh in System Transformation. The difference represents the potential scale of hydrogen use for heating and heavy-duty transport.There are...

  • Media Mentions

    reNEWS | Price cannibalisation

    We were asked to comment on price cannibalisation in ReNews today. c Price cannibalisation is the “depressive influence on the wholesale electricity price at times of high output from intermittent, weather-driven generation such as solar, onshore and offshore wind”. reNEWS

  • Press Releases

    Cornwall Insight comments on Ireland’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme results

    Commenting on the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) results announced yesterday Conall Bolger, Head of Energy Markets at Cornwall Insight, said:  “Yesterday was a good day for the Irish renewables industry; with the level of supported renewables capacity set to grow by over a quarter in the next 2-3 years....

  • Press Releases

    National Grid’s FES hydrogen focus could boost offshore wind deployment

    National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios (FES)*, published 27 July, showed hydrogen – for heating, transport and clean dispatchable thermal energy playing a pivotal role in three** out of the four of its net zero scenarios; Steady progression (SP), Consumer Transformation (CT), System Transformation (ST) and Leading the Way (LW). Cornwall...

  • Press Releases

    Number of Power Purchase Agreements for renewable technologies increasing

    Research from Cornwall Insight’s ‘PPA market share report’ suggests that the number of flexible and renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) being signed is on an upward trajectory, highlighted in the below graph. Flexible assets PPA market Since August 2019 flexible assets have seen 530.6MW of optimisation agreements announced. 197.6MW of...

  • Press Releases

    The effects of lockdown on the Balancing Mechanism

    The COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdown restrictions have impacted GB’s energy market, with record low demand and wholesale prices. These changes in market conditions have seen National Grid as the Electricity System Operator (ESO) face operational challenges in balancing the electricity system. Research from Cornwall Insight highlights that during...

  • Press Releases

    Renewable generator revenues fall due to COVID-19 lockdown

    Research from Cornwall Insight’s Green Power Forecast reveals there has been a sharp decline in generator revenues. Solar and wind technologies have been particularly impacted by low demand levels due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Solar PV captured prices were, on average, 8.4% and 14.9% below baseload levels in March and...

  • Press Releases

    Over 10GW of renewables projects could be competing in the next CfD round

    The government announced the reinstatement of 'Pot 1' technologies – which includes onshore wind and solar PV - in the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round 4 (AR4) in 2021. Research from Cornwall Insight's Renewable Pipeline tracker highlights how competitive the AR4 auction could be, especially between 'Pot 1'...

  • Press Releases

    Western Link outage and high wind sees constraint cost hit a record high

    The Western Link HVDC suffered an unplanned outage on 10 January, which caused it to remain offline until 8 February. This coincided with record-high levels of wind generation in GB with generation from transmission connected wind topping 6.3TWh. However, with 2.2GW of HVDC capacity unavailable, significant volumes of wind output...

  • Press Releases

    Highest offshore wind load factors recorded since 2015

    Latest research from Cornwall Insight highlights that as a result of the elevated wind speeds experienced in January onshore wind load factors averaged 42% for the month, and older offshore sites (pre-2016) reached an average of 52%. Newer (post-2016) windfarms fared much better with offshore wind farms load factors averaging...

  • Press Releases

    Evaluating Italy’s latest renewables subsidy auction

    Results of the first auction under the new Italian renewables subsidy were announced on 28 January by Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (GSE) – the country’s energy agency. The format of the auction provides top-up premia for generators, with developers bidding reductions of between 2% to 70% against a reference price...

  • Press Releases

    Lack of headroom in RESS will see projects jostle for limited capacity

    The upcoming Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) has caused excitement across the industry and with between 1000GWh – 3000GWh available, the competition could be high. A key feature of the design for the RESS auctions is the carve-outs or “preference category” for several key areas: community projects, solar projects and...

  • Press Releases

    Number of sub-800MW demand periods double and sub-700MW quadruples in just a year

    On the 6 February, AEMO issued market notice 73857 in response to the enduring islanding of the SA network. The notice informed the market that when South Australian (SA) demand falls under 800MW several generators, including more than 500MW of wind and 300MW of solar will be constrained down to...

  • Press Releases

    Cornwall Insight comments on negative wholesale prices recorded for the first time

    On 9 December the UK experienced a negative day-ahead trading price for the first time, with prices for 03:00 AM to 04:00 AM UTC delivery on the hourly day-ahead auction dropping to -£2.84/MWh. This was caused by exceptionally high wind generation in GB throughout the weekend combined with low demand...

  • Press Releases

    An extra incentive in RESS-1 support scheme

    The new Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) will provide support to renewable electricity projects in Ireland. The scheme will be a competitive auction-based funding mechanism with a primary focus on cost-effectiveness. The RESS-1 auctions are actively targeting between 1TWh – 3TWh of renewable energy that can be delivered ahead of...

  • Press Releases

    Analysing wind forecasting in the Irish energy market

    It is expected that Ireland will see greater penetration of wind generation in the next 20 years. According to the Tomorrow Energy Scenarios (TES) installed capacity forecast Ireland will have between 6GW to 8.2GW by 2040. With wind generation growth set to continue, forecasting wind accurately will become increasingly important....

  • Press Releases

    Scottish wind farms called upon in the Balancing Mechanism

    Management of wind resources is a critical tool for National Grid in dealing with system constraints, supply and demand imbalance and increasingly inertia*. Data from Cornwall Insight’s Balancing Mechanism (BM) Service highlights that wind was the first-most utilised renewable technology asked to turn down in the BM. Further analysis also...

  • Press Releases

    Cornwall Insight comments on the Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 3 results

    Responding to the Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round 3 results, James Brabben, Wholesale Manager at Cornwall Insight, said: “Record low clearing prices in CfD Allocation Round 3 indicate the continued and rapid cost reductions for offshore wind resulting from competitive auctions. “Prices below £40/MWh (in 2011-12 money) are extremely...