Yesterday the Government announced annual CfD rounds to support renewables in the coming years.  This has been welcomed across the board and will certainly ease the burdens for those renewable energy projects that try frantically to get their projects into an eligible position every 2+ years only to miss out because of a planning delay etc. and then find themselves in limbo for a significant period of time. 

However, logistically holding these every year will be some feat given the delays we have seen in the past and the CfD process that has to be gone through in terms of consultation around contract changes, publishing allocations etc.  Also let's not forget that how successful the CfD rounds are depends a lot on the budget allocated to each, any caps on capacity that are applied and very importantly, what technologies in what pots, are allowed to bid.

This year we faced the announcement late on of marine projects ( wave and tidal) being allocated a ring fenced amount in the less established pot at the very last minute.   Everyone in that industry was pleased with that ring fencing and it was needed, but we cannot ignore the fact that the late announcement meant that those projects then had very little time to react and put considered projects forward before the eligiblity window closed. 

It all points to consistency on pots, budgets, minima and maxima etc. for periods or numbers of allocation rounds particularly if they are to come around annually,  so that project developers can plan and deliver the bids and projects that the Government and we all need.