Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Contracts for Difference scheme in supporting low-carbon electricity generation.

The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is the Government’s main mechanism for supporting new low-carbon electricity generation projects in Great Britain. It has awarded contracts to renewable projects totalling over 30 Giga Watts (GW) of capacity, including around 20GW of offshore wind. On 8 September the Government published Allocation Round 5 results, which awarded contracts to a record 95 projects with total generation capacity of 3.7GW. The scheme now runs annual auctions and the evidence base is reviewed every round. The Government has published the timeline for the next round, which opens in March 2024.