Following the biggest ever UK renewables auction, the government said on Thursday the contract price for windfarms was nearly 6% lower than the previous auction, despite the rising cost of materials to build windfarms.

A string of new contracts should add about 7 gigawatts of clean power capacity to Britain’s turbine fleet by 2026. The government hopes to have 50GW by 2030 and has embarked on a push to expand Britain’s renewables industry in the face of rocketing fossil fuel prices.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated an already volatile oil and gas market and left countries scrambling to shore up their energy supplies.

The contract price for wind farms was 5.8% lower than the previous auction in 2019, according to a statement from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Orsted A/S, Iberdrola SA’s Scottish Power unit, and Vattenfall AB were among the winners.

The “contracts for difference” guarantee wind-power companies fixed prices to sell electricity for the following 15 years. If the market price falls below the contract price, the government subsidises the difference. If the market is higher, the companies pay money back to the government. Since wholesale energy prices began to rocket last year, windfarms have begun paying back money to the government.

The story has been covered extensively, with reports in the Guardian, Bloomberg and Reuters.

The press release from the UK Government can be read here.