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Some of the offshore wind projects that secured Contracts for Difference (CfDs) in the UK’s seventh allocation round (AR7) are gearing up towards final investment decisions, with the first AR7 projects expected to reach this stage as early as this year, with others following suit in 2027.
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The FID for the first of the four projects awarded CfDs is anticipated in the summer this year. This is according to RWE, which launched the process to raise non-recourse project finance debt for its Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farms and said it expects the closing of the partnership transaction with the new project partner KKR and the project financing later this year .
The two offshore wind farms making up the 3.1 GW Norfolk Vanguard project are planned to be commissioned in 2029 (Norfolk Vanguard West) and 2030 (Norfolk Vanguard East).
For the other two RWE projects that secured CfDs in AR7, the developer did not specify when the company expects to reach final investment decisions.
These include the Dogger Bank South (DBS) offshore wind farm, which also comprises two separate sites, DBS East and DBS West, and has a combined generation capacity of 3 GW. In December 2023, Masdar joined RWE to deliver DBS by taking a 49 per cent stake in the project. Commissioning of the DBS offshore wind farm is expected in 2031 (DBS West) and 2032 (DBS East).
The 775 MW Awel y Môr offshore wind farm, being developed as an extension to the existing Gwynt y Môr, is jointly owned by RWE (60 per cent), Stadtwerke München (30 per cent) and Siemens (10 per cent), and is expected to be commissioned in 2031.
SSE, which was awarded a CfD for 1,380MW of offshore renewable energy capacity from its Berwick Bank B project, said that it would now progress Berwick Bank B towards a final investment decision (FID) in line with its hurdle rates and investment criteria, expected in 2027 .
SSE also said the remaining two phases of Berwick Bank, A and C, are available for entry into upcoming auction rounds, with the UK’s eighth CfD allocation round (AR8) expected towards the end of this year.
A final investment decision on the Pentland project, one of the two floating offshore wind farms that secured CfDs, is also expected to be made in 2027 , with operations expected to commence in 2030.
The project, which was awarded a state contract for 92.50 MW of capacity, is being developed by Highland Wind and is majority owned by funds managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). In November 2025, the project secured investment from the National Wealth Fund (NWF), Great British Energy (GBE) and the Scottish National Investment Bank, which joined existing project partners Eurus Energy UK and minority shareholder Hexicon.
The second floating wind project, Erebus, which was awarded a lease agreement by the Crown Estate in 2020 and secured consent from Welsh Ministers in 2023, is being developed by Blue Gem Wind, a joint venture between Simply Blue Group and TotalEnergies.
The 100 MW floating wind farm is planned to come online in 2029/2030.
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about 6 months ago
Some of the offshore wind projects that secured Contracts for Difference (CfDs) in the UK’s seventh allocation round (AR7) are gearing up towards final investment decisions, with the first AR7 projects expected to reach this stage as early as this year, with others following suit in 2027. The FID fo
