Windletter #129 - Analysis of the UK AR7 offshore auction: a breath of fresh air for the sector
Also: installing a LIDAR system on the hub of a wind turbine, construction begins at Nullagine with Nabrawind towers, offshore tender in Colombia, and more.
Hello everyone and welcome to a new issue of Windletter. I'm Sergio Fernández Munguía (@Sergio_FerMun) and here we discuss the latest news in the wind power sector from a different perspective. If you're not subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so here.
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The most-read stories from the last edition were: SGRE’s digital twin video, Envision’s new offshore hire, and Liftra’s crane catalogue.
Let’s dive into this week’s news.
Although countless words have already been written about the AR7 auction, I believe it’s still worth bringing here the key takeaways and our own analysis of what has been the largest offshore wind auction in European history.
🇬🇧 AR7 UK offshore wind auction results and analysis
The UK has awarded 8,338 MW of new offshore wind capacity in the seventh round of Contracts for Difference (CfD) AR7, the largest volume ever granted in European history.
In total, six fixed-bottom wind farms were awarded, totalling 8.2 GW, along with two floating projects adding up to 193 MW.
All fixed-bottom projects (except Berwick Bank in Scotland) secured a CfD at £91.20/MWh (2024 money), equivalent to approx. €105/MWh. Berwick Bank closed at £89.49/MWh (~€103/MWh).
The two floating wind farms, Erebus (100 MW) in the Celtic Sea and Pentland (92.5 MW) in Scotland, won contracts at £216.49/MWh (~€249/MWh), reflecting the higher current cost of floating technology.
The maximum reference prices (2024 base) were:
Fixed-bottom: £113/MWh ≈ €132/MWh
Floating: £271/MWh ≈ €317/MWh
So awarded prices came in well below the cap.
Winners and losers: key players
RWE emerged as the biggest winner, involved in projects totalling 6.9 GW (82% of total awarded capacity), all in partnership with entities such as Masdar, KKR, Stadtwerke München, and Siemens Financial Services.
In floating wind, Simply Blue Group (Irish developer) secured Erebus in partnership with TotalEnergies. Pentland is backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Hexicon, and Eurus.
However, there were some notable absences. Ørsted didn’t win a single project, reflecting its current financial caution. Vattenfall was also absent, it had sold the Norfolk projects to RWE, who appears to have made a compelling business case.
An estimated 24 GW of capacity was bid (around 15 fixed and 4 floating projects), so many developers were left out. But this is good news: more competition helps keep prices in check.
One of RWE’s strengths was likely economies of scale, clustering over 3 GW in Dogger Bank South and about 3.1 GW in Norfolk Vanguard, creating procurement, construction, and O&M synergies.
Prices in AR7 vs previous rounds (AR4, AR5, AR6)
AR7 marked a clear price increase compared to previous auctions, reflecting inflation and rising project costs, a recurring topic in Windletter.
Here’s the price evolution:
AR4 (2022): £37.35/MWh (2012 money) ≈ £52/MWh in 2024 terms (~€60/MWh)
AR5 (2023): Cap at £44/MWh (2012) ≈ £61/MWh (2024) – No projects awarded
AR6 (2024): Cap at £73/MWh (2012) ≈ £102/MWh (2024) – ~5 GW awarded at ~£75–82/MWh
Supply chain implications
According to Spinergie, the awarded pipeline represents approx. 542 turbines, the equivalent of one full year of nacelle production for Siemens, Vestas and GE combined.
Given GE’s current offshore pause, it’s likely Vestas and SGRE will split the contracts.
In monopiles, tight supply is expected, possibly opening the door to Asian suppliers. Berwick Bank may be the only jacket-based project.
RWE’s dominance might not be great for the supply chain, more market spread tends to be healthier. RWE now holds significant buying power.
Floating wind: price comparison
Floating projects Erebus and Pentland secured CfDs at £216.49/MWh (~€249/MWh), more than double the price of fixed-bottom wind.
In comparison, France’s latest floating wind auctions (AO5 in South Brittany and AO6 in the Mediterranean) awarded CfDs at €86–93/MWh in 2023–2024.
In France, the grid operator RTE pays for the offshore grid connection (export cables + offshore substations), reducing project CAPEX.
Also, French projects are larger (250 MW) and prices are indexed until commissioning. WindEurope has warned not to treat these as universal European benchmarks.
What would floating wind cost in other markets? Somewhere between UK and France. For Spain, figures around €170/MWh have been floated, but nothing confirmed.
What to expect from AR8
Following AR7’s success, expectations are high for AR8 (set for later this year).
It’s likely that maximum reference prices will remain stable, while awarded prices may rise slightly, the most competitive projects are now gone, and new ones will take time to mature.
All the key data, right here, in Windletter.
🔍 Installing a LIDAR system in a wind turbine hub
While browsing LinkedIn, one post stood out, from the WiValdi research wind farm, located in Lower Saxony, northwest Germany.
WiValdi is owned by the German utility EWE and operates as a testing ground for new technologies, in collaboration with research centres such as ForWind (University of Oldenburg).
On one of its experimental turbines, they recently installed a Spinner-LiDAR, a laser sensor integrated directly into the turbine hub, delivering spectacular images like these:
While traditional nacelle-mounted sensors measure the wind after it has passed through the rotor, the Spinner-LiDAR measures incoming wind before it hits the blades. In essence, it allows the turbine to “see a few seconds into the future”, detecting gusts, turbulence, and wind shear in advance.
This data can be sent in real time to the control system, enabling the turbine to pre-emptively adjust blade pitch or power output, thereby reducing mechanical loads. The result? Less stress on components like blades, hub, and drivetrain, and a longer operational life.
Will this become a more common technology in the coming years?
🏗️ Tethered monopiles? An intermediate path to unlock more offshore wind without going floating
Albert Winnemuller, Head of Global Offshore Product Market Strategy at Vestas, recently shared on LinkedIn a concept that could have major implications for global offshore wind: tethered monopiles.
Today, conventional monopiles hit their practical depth limit at around 60–70 m. Beyond that point, three major challenges arise:
Higher CAPEX due to increased steel requirements and pile lengths (up to ~100 m including the embedded section).
Complex fabrication and logistics, as diameters and weights challenge current factory and vessel capabilities.
Structural design constraints, including rigidity, stability and dynamic behaviour.
One of the most promising proposals is that of Entrion Wind, with its FRP (Fully Restrained Platform) concept: a monopile reinforced with tethers to improve stiffness and load distribution, similar to guyed towers already used onshore.
The potential? Extending fixed-bottom offshore wind to 100–120 m water depths, unlocking sites currently considered suitable only for floating wind.
According to Aegir Insights, expanding fixed-bottom deployment to 100 m depths could unlock around 50 GW of additional offshore wind capacity in the UK and Ireland alone.
📐 Fortescue begins construction of Nullagine with Envision turbines and Nabrawind towers
Fortescue has started construction of the Nullagine Wind Project, its first wind farm, located in the mining region of Pilbara.
Nullagine, previously referred to as Pilbara in Windletter, will have an installed capacity of 133 MW and will consist of 17 Envision EN182-7.8MW turbines, each rated at 7.8 MW and equipped with a 182-metre rotor.
This project is particularly noteworthy due to the use of 188-metre hub-height Nabralift self-erecting towers from our sponsor Nabrawind, a technology that was recently acquired by Fortescue itself.
According to Nabrawind’s website, these towers help overcome the logistical constraints of remote locations such as Pilbara. They maintain a maximum diameter of 4.6 metres, enabling conventional road transport and avoiding cost overruns. In addition, their self-erecting system reduces the need for large cranes and simplifies installation in remote environments.
According to Fortescue, a prototype with this same configuration has already been installed at an Envision test site in Jiangsu (China), and it will be moved to the project during 2026.
And in fact, as has been reported, the first of the units has already been installed in Australia and connected to the grid.
⚙️ Goldwind signs multibrand contract in Argentina
An interesting move by Goldwind in Argentina, where the company has announced the signing of a multibrand maintenance contract to service the Trelew wind farm.
According to the report, Goldwind will take over maintenance of 15 Alstom ECO 100 turbines, which descend from the technology of the Spanish manufacturer Ecotecnia after its integration into Alstom. These turbines feature a 100-metre rotor and are rated at 3 MW each.
It’s not particularly rare for one OEM to maintain turbines built by another. In fact, several years ago, driven by healthy margins in services and the low or non-existent profits in turbine sales, Western OEMs heavily invested in so-called multibrand service strategies.
However, many of them have since shifted back to focusing on their core business, prioritising profitability from existing contracts involving their own technology.
What’s surprising here is that a Chinese OEM has made this move outside its domestic market. Most likely, this is a case of operational synergy, where the same O&M team working on Goldwind turbines in the region can also handle Trelew. Still, it highlights the maturity of Goldwind’s operations in Argentina.
Goldwind’s history in Argentina dates back to 2017, when it acquired the Loma Blanca and Miramar projects, still under development at the time, positioning itself on the developer side. That move opened the door to the country, and a few years later (2018–2019) the company built and installed its GW 3S turbines in those sites.
🇨🇴 Colombia holds Latin America’s first offshore wind auction
Colombia has officially held what can be considered Latin America’s first offshore wind tender. On 16 December 2025, the country’s National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) published the final results and confirmed Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) as the provisional awardee.
The awarded area lies off the coast of Barranquilla, covers approximately 140 km², and could host around 425 MW of capacity. Notably, CIP was the only bidder to submit an offer.
What has actually been granted is the administrative authorisation to begin the permitting process. This now opens a phase of procedures with the Ministry, followed by environmental impact assessments. In other words, it’s an important first step from both a symbolic and regulatory perspective, but still very early days in terms of real execution.
Colombia, as a country, carries the baggage of onshore development issues, including delays, social tensions, and uncertainty around legal and regulatory frameworks. This likely explains why only CIP participated in this initial round, and why it’s surprising no local players showed up.
Given the high investment required for offshore wind farms, the outlook will need to improve significantly in the coming years if we are to see a project materialise.
Full details on the process are available on the Ministry’s official website.
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Disclaimer: The opinions presented in Windletter are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.