UK Opens Bid Window For CfD Under Allocation Round 7

The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero in the United Kingdom (UK) has officially opened the Allocation Round 7 (AR7) of its Contracts for Difference (CfD) program, inviting bids for new renewable energy capacity to win long-term contracts with the government. This is a key mechanism of the UK’s energy strategy to incentivize investment in low-carbon electricity generation.  

This time around, instead of pooling all the technologies under the same timeline, the department has published a separate indicative timeline for offshore wind as AR7, and another for non-offshore wind technologies as AR7a.  

While it expects to announce the results of the offshore wind tender before the end of 2025, results for the remaining capacity will likely be released in late 2025 or early 2026, given the higher volume of applications anticipated (see United Kingdom To Launch CfD Allocation Round 7 In August 2025).   

Solar PV projects with a minimum of 5 MW installed capacity are eligible to apply as part of pot 1, where they compete against onshore wind, sewage gas, Remote Island Wind, hydro, landfill gas, and energy from waste with CHP generation sources.  

Selected solar PV projects will need to start delivery by 2027-28 and 2028-29. Their target commissioning window has been raised from 3 to 12 months.  

Winning projects in fixed-bottom offshore wind, floating offshore wind, onshore wind, and solar technologies will secure long-term contracts lasting 20 years, an increase from the 15-year norm followed so far.   

“The policy aims to provide more flexibility to solar developers to be able to deal with associated commercial and delivery risks, such as supply chain procurement issues, and reduce the risk of contract erosion,” explained the government while announcing its final response to policy proposals for CfD reforms. 

Opened on August 7, 2025, the AR7 bid window will remain open until August 27, 2025, on NESO’s website.  

All the previous CfD rounds have so far delivered 10 GW of renewable energy capacity, according to the government, with another 23 GW contracted to become operational by 2030. It sees AR7 to AR9 as being crucial for the country to achieve the 2030 clean power target, under which solar’s share is 47 GW (see UK Unveils Solar Roadmap To Hit 47 GW Solar By 2030). 

The UK government aims for AR7 to be the ‘biggest ever’ for its CfD mechanism.

However, the opposition party Reform UK recently warned developers, discouraging them from participating in AR7. It threatened that a Reform UK-led government, if elected in the next general election, would scrap all contracts awarded, a threat that was criticized by the local renewable energy industry (see Reform UK Warns Developers: Participate In AR7 At Own Risk).