The maximum price for renewable energy projects awarded Contracts for Difference (CfD) under the UK government’s Allocation Round 8 (AR8) auction has remained at £75/MWh (US$100/MWh).
Unchanged from AR7, the £75/MWh administrative strike price (ASP) for solar PV plants is given in 2024-benchmarked prices. It is the cheapest technology, behind onshore wind at £92/MWh, offshore wind at £113/MWh and floating offshore wind at £271/MWh.
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ASPs are the maximum bid that generators can put into the auction, and historically, the final strike prices successful at auction are 15-20% lower than ASPs.
As previously confirmed, AR8 is running with slightly adjusted terms compared with other years. This sees only projects with a Gate 2 connection offer eligible to bid, and contract lengths of 20 years, up from 15 in all rounds before AR7.
Newly for this allocation round, established technologies are split into individual pots, as opposed to competing within one, and strike prices are set by technology so bids must specify what category their projects belong to.
According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the change reflects revised internal pipeline assumptions and is intended to improve the government’s ability to shape auction outcomes and assess value for money. The strike price is the amount that renewable generators will be paid per unit, regardless of market energy prices, operating effectively as a subsidy received when the wholesale electricity price is low, but pay back consumers when the electricity price is high (ECIU, 2025). This certainty reduces risk and makes projects more attractive for investment.
You can read the full version of this story on our sister site, Solar Power Portal.
