Offshore Wind

The green investment specialist has tapped Iberdrola’s former managing director of offshore wind, Jonathan Cole, to serve as CEO of Corio Generation, which will be a standalone company.

The Biden administration brought in $4.37bn with its first offshore wind land lease auction on 23 February.

The US government plans to auction a lease area in the New York Bight next month as it targets 30GW of capacity by the end of the decade.

K2 Management’s Gary Bills explains how this often-overlooked challenge is threatening the industry and what the UK needs to do to solve the problem.

Responding to the energy crisis, the UK has fast-tracked a 2050 zero-carbon electricity pledge to 2035. That brings with it some very serious security-of-supply doubts.

Offshore wind has taken off in Europe, with turbines visible on coastlines from Scotland to the Mediterranean. North America is lagging behind, but could be about to take off.

Greater clarity that only the government can provide is needed around issues such as grid connections, financial certainty mechanisms and permitting, K2 Management’s Gary Bills explains.

A supportive administration will be crucial to unleashing the power of the sector in the US, but significant obstacles remain.

A surge of actors, including oil and gas players such as BP and Total, are coming late to the party and paying catch-up money for the entry ticket.

It's also a sign of how the UK oil major intends to 'do things differently' in the renewable energy space, including by taking on development risk.