Thegovernment originally signaled its intention to initiate the CfD scheme – thelynchpin of the sweeping Electricity Market Reform package – with afirst-come-first-served allocation system for renewables projects.

Yet anumber of factors – including the European Commission’s growing impatience withtechnology-specific support schemes – have led Whitehall to ditch the idea of afirst-come-first-served system altogether for technologies deemed established.

Thatgrouping – including onshore wind and large-scale PV, in addition to otherslike landfill gas and energy-from-waste-with-combined-heating-and-power – wouldinstead be forced from this autumn into a “constrained allocation” system, inwhich bids are assessed on price alone.

Thesesectors