LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 15, 2026--
The UK’s latest Contracts for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round results confirm a major step forward for clean electricity buildout, while also highlighting a simple truth about power system economics: as wind and solar scale, flexible, dispatchable capacity becomes more valuable and, done well, cheaper for consumers than the alternatives.
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The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published Allocation Round 7 (AR7) results on 14 January 2026, awarding a record 8.4375GW of offshore wind projects. Clearing strike prices (in 2024 prices) were £91.20/MWh for offshore wind (fixed-bottom), £89.49/MWh for offshore wind projects in Scotland, and £216.49/MWh for floating offshore wind.
“These outcomes show the UK is serious about building clean power at scale,” said Zach Dodds-Brown, Development Director at Terra Firma Energy. “But they also reinforce why the transition must be built on two pillars: abundant low-carbon energy and dependable flexibility that can respond in minutes and run when the weather doesn’t cooperate.”
Why higher wind clearing prices make flexibility even more important
AR7’s higher clearing prices reflect well-documented inflation and supply chain pressures across offshore wind. The UK now has a larger volume of renewables coming online at fixed, index-linked contract prices and that makes the system costs around intermittency, constraints and balancing increasingly material.
The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has been explicit that balancing costs are driven by the changing generation mix and network constraints as the system decarbonises, and it has identified major consumer savings through market and operational reforms.
Meanwhile, UK government analysis has highlighted the scale of potential savings from flexibility: the Statutory Security of Supply Report 2025 notes that flexibility (alongside storage and interconnection) could save up to £10bn per year (2012 prices) by 2050 by reducing how much generation and network build is needed.
Flexible generation: a critical asset class for a low-cost transition
Flexible generation (often called “flexgen”), fast-start, high-ramp plants that operate at low load factors and respond to peaks and system needs, is a core tool for keeping the system reliable without overbuilding expensive assets.
NESO’s Clean Power 2030 analysis has stated that gas-fired generation capacity remains essential for security of supply until sufficient low-carbon equivalents are built. In other words: flexibility is not a “nice to have”; it’s part of the engineering reality of a weather-dependent grid.
“When flexibility is absent, the system pays anyway, through higher constraint costs, inefficient redispatch and increased balancing actions,” Zach added. “Well-located, well-operated flexible generation reduces the amount of ‘backup’ the system must carry, supports renewable integration, and lowers the total cost to consumers.”
Recent reforms and policy discussions also recognise that cutting constraint and balancing costs is a consumer priority. Reuters has reported that network and market upgrades could save up to £4bn in constraint payments by 2030, citing NESO.
About Terra Firma Energy
Terra Firma Energy constructs, owns and operates flexible power generation plants across the UK. With three operational sites and additional sites under construction totalling 116MW, the company is expanding through development and acquisition to support the UK's transition to a resilient, flexible, low-carbon energy system.
Flexible Generation is essential in keeping the UK's energy system reliable without overbuilding other more expensive assets. NESO’s Clean Power 2030 analysis has stated that gas-fired generation capacity remains essential for security of supply. Terra Firma Energy's 5MW flexible power generating plant in Droitwich Spa, UK along with their other operational sites play a major part in providing the UK with such security.
Terra Firma Energy believe the UK's energy transition must be built on two pillars: abundant low-carbon energy and dependable flexibility that can respond in minutes and run when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — James Talarico barely mentioned Donald Trump when he finally got to give his victory speech on Wednesday night as Democrats' nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas.
But the 36-year-old state lawmaker is now a front man for the left's opposition to Trump, not just in his own state but around the country. With his victory over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the state lawmaker from Austin will test whether a smiling message of unity and change is enough to answer voters’ frustrations amid discord at home and now a war abroad.
“We're done being divided. We're done being played,” Talarico said, several times invoking his Christian faith and promising a “politics of love.”
“We're not just trying to win an election. We are trying to fundamentally change our politics,” he said, adding that he's “tired of being told to hate my neighbor.”
Talarico acknowledged that his immediate challenge is consolidating support from Crockett's supporters who flocked to the congresswoman's unapologetically pugilistic approach to Trump and Republicans. He told them, “I hope to earn your trust."
Crockett conceded to Talarico on Wednesday morning, saying that Texas “must remain united because this is bigger than any one person.”
Talarico also got an endorsement and a fundraising email blast from former Vice President Kamala Harris, who previously backed Crockett in the primary.
Talarico will need all the help he can get in a Republican-dominated state where Democrats have gone three decades without winning a statewide race. He will face either U.S. Sen. John Cornyn or state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who advanced to a Republican runoff on Tuesday.
Conventional political wisdom has Talarico as the stronger Democratic candidate for November, especially if Republicans nominate Paxton, a conservative firebrand who has weathered allegations of corruption and infidelity over the years.
Although Democrats are often choosing between moderate and progressive candidates in primaries, they faced a largely stylistic choice in Texas.
Talarico, 36, is a Presbyterian seminarian and rarely raises his voice. Crockett, 44, is an unapologetic political brawler who hammers Trump and other Republicans with acidic flourish.
But Talarico’s broader argument is one that he could have made regardless of whether Trump was in the White House. He regularly assails the rise in Christian nationalism. A former teacher, he advocates for public education. And he's said often, and again Wednesday, that the country’s fundamental divide is not partisan but “top vs. bottom.”
He's not running, he said, against Cornyn, Paxton or “any one politician” but against “the billionaire mega donors and their corrupt political system.”
Lea Downey Gallatin, 40, an Austin resident who met Talarico when they interned together for a congressman, described him as “a serious advocate for the disenfranchised and a serious policymaker.”
Talarico campaigned on the theory that he could pull new people into the party's tent, while Crockett promised she could increase turnout within Democrats' base.
“If you hate politics and you never voted before, you have a home in this campaign,” he said. He also reached out to erstwhile Trump voters who are “fed up with the extremism and the corruption in our government.”
In the closing stretch of the primary campaign, Talarico posed for pictures and greeted the singer of a Tejano band playing in a San Antonio neighborhood. Inside his campaign rally that day, Lori Alvarez, a 39-year-old who works for a disaster relief nonprofit, said she supported Talarico because “he really listens to what we need."
"I think he’s going to be able to make change in Washington for us,” said the married mother of three young girls.
Unofficial primary returns showed Talarico with a dominating performance around his home base of Austin, including in mostly white areas. He outpaced Crockett across much of rural and small-town Texas, including in the Rio Grande Valley, where Trump made gains in his 2024 presidential victory among Hispanic voters. Crockett was strongest in metro Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, including areas with large concentrations of Black voters.
Crockett is Black, and Talarico is white.
A Democratic win in Texas would require stitching together that multiracial and multiethnic coalition, spanning the metro areas and heavily Latino South and West Texas, while limiting Republican margins in whiter rural counties.
In 2018, Democrat Beto O’Rourke came the closest to that mix, losing to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz by about 215,000 votes or about 2.5 percentage points. With both parties holding competitive primaries Tuesday, Democratic primary voters outnumbered Republicans by about 180,000 out of more than 4.4 million — with some ballots still being tallied.
Talarico and other Democrats say enthusiasm is on their side this year. But there were plenty of Democratic Texans who saw Crockett as their champion.
Troy Burrow, a 61-year-old Navy retiree, called her “rugged” and “the only one I see fighting for us.”
He added, “I like how she doesn’t back down from anybody.”
Burrow said some voters probably saw Talarico as more electable because he is more soft-spoken. But, he said, “We’ve got to get into the gutter with these folks, because that’s where they are.”
Talarico, meanwhile, promised to fight in his own way — again invoking his faith.
“Two thousand years ago, when the powerful few at the top hurt those at the bottom, that barefoot rabbi didn't stay in his room and pray,” Talarico said, referencing Jesus and the Biblical story of his anger in the temple. “He walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice."
He added that "it's time to start flipping tables.”
Barrow reported from Atlanta, Figueroa from Austin, Texas, and Beaumont from San Antonio. Associated Press writer Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.
This story has corrected the last name of Texas voter Troy Burrow, from Burroughs.
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, speaks for the first time since winning the Democratic nomination in Austin, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Attendees cheer before Texas Democratic Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, speaks for the first time since winning the Democratic nomination in Austin, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, waves before speaking for the first time since winning the Democratic nomination in Austin, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Supporters of Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, react as results come in during a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, greets supporters at a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks during a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks at a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
