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A comment on Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and Solar Buildout. Parent comment

Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and... by gehsty on Thursday January 15, 2026 @10:27AM (#46633857)
I guess we are. But who are the plants owned by, who built the and where did the components come from, are we also switching them off because our grid cannot handle transmit huge volumes of renewable energy from Scotland to London, and turning on gas power plants to make up for it.

You also have situations, like today, where a German developer has handed back a seabed lease for 3GW of offshore power because they didn’t get a contract for power from government (CFD) and their lease fees are approx £400m/yr if they want to continue developing the windfarm. This is after spending £1B already on lease fees with nothing to show for it.

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Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and... by youngtaff on Friday January 16, 2026 @05:47AM (#46645119)
The interconnection problem is being solved by several large cables down the east coast

Leasing the seabed before you win a CfD auction is a commercial risk but they probably didn't win because their bid price was too high

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Re:Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China's Wind and... by gehsty on Friday January 16, 2026 @10:01AM (#46647025)
Their price was too high because it had to include paying back £1B of lease fees that were made as part of another government policy. Comes back to priorities being confusing, if the intention is lower bills why the lease fees, if the purpose is good jobs and independence, why compete on price? If their purpose is national wealth why not partial state funding / ownership?
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