Eight new major renewable electricity projects will be constructed in the UK, the Government announced today.

The five offshore wind farms, two coal-to-biomass conversions and a biomass plant with combined heat and power will provide up to £12 billion of private sector investment, support 8,500 jobs, and add a further 4.5GW of low-carbon electricity to Britain’s energy mix (or around 4 per cent of capacity), generating enough clean electricity to power over three million homes.

Details of the projects came as a new government report showed that the UK has invested £45 billion in new energy infrastructure since 2010 – the majority of which has gone to renewable energy projects.  The Department for Energy and Climate Change estimates that a further £100 billion will need to be spent on clean energy before 2020.

Once built, the successful projects will contribute around 15TWh or 14 per cent of the renewable electricity we expect to come forward by 2020, helping to put the UK well on the way to meeting its targets. They will also reduce emissions by 10 MtCO2 per year compared to fossil fuel power generation.

The projects have been offered under Contracts for Difference (CfD). Under CfDs, generators and developers receive a fixed strike price for the electricity they produce for 15 years.

These contracts are vital to give investors the confidence they need to pay the up-front costs of major new infrastructure projects.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey said: “These contracts for major renewable electricity projects mark a new stage in Britain’s green energy investment boom.

“By themselves they will bring green jobs and growth across the UK, but they are a significant part of our efforts to give Britain cleaner and more secure energy.

“These are the first investments from our reforms to build the world’s first low carbon electricity market – reforms which will see competition and markets attract tens of billions of pounds of vital energy investment whilst reducing the costs of clean energy to consumers.

“Record levels of energy investment are at the forefront of the Government’s infrastructure programme and are filling the massive gap we inherited. It’s practical reforms like these that will keep the lights on and tackle climate change, by giving investors more certainty.”

The five offshore wind farms are:

Maf Smith, deputy chief executive of Renewable UK, the wind industry trade body, said: “We’re pleased to see this vote in confidence for these five offshore wind projects, which will make an important contribution to keeping the lights on, and create much-needed growth in coastal areas.

We could see over 100,000 people working in the wind and marine energy sector over the next decade, and Government backing here will give the supply chain confidence to invest in the UK, with costs falling as the clean energy industry develops and scales up.

However, we need far more onshore and offshore wind projects over the next decade if we’re not to find our energy security threatened, and the UK further exposed to price shocks from imported fossil fuels, so it’s important that the Contracts for Difference regime works for all renewable energy projects, not just those that have secured early contracts.”

Jimmy Aldridge, Greenpeace UK energy campaigner, said: “We welcome the commitment to improving UK energy security by getting off imports and backing clean, home-grown energy. But all this needs to happen much faster and on a bigger scale if we are to guarantee a safe supply of clean power to Britain’s homes.

There were 57 applications for renewable projects with a fixed-price guarantee, yet DECC only granted 8 – all of which are for more expensive projects. Just yesterday David Cameron announced he wants to limit onshore wind farms, despite these being the cheapest source of clean, home-grown energy we have.

If ministers are serious about shaking off our chronic addiction to volatile, dangerous fossil fuels, they should drop their good cop, bad cop routine on clean energy and get on with the job of making Britain’s energy cleaner and safer.”