Research or analysis Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE): EIR release

Information requested

Provide any research or analysis held by the Scottish Government (conducted in house or by third parties) on the question of the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for:

1. Onshore wind in Scotland
2. Bottom-fixed wind in Scottish offshore waters
3. Floating wind in Scottish offshore waters

Please restrict to research or analysis conducted 1st September 2018 - date.

Response

I enclose a copy of the information you requested.

The Scottish government does not hold internal analysis on LCOE for wind power that falls within the scope of your request.

LCOE figures published by BEIS in their Electricity Generation Cost report are available and the link to the two most recent reports can be found below.

• BEIS Electricity Generation Costs (2020) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• BEIS Electricity Generation Costs (November 2016) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

However, in our search we noted three documents that may be within scope. These have been attached as an Annex. Documents 1 and 2 relate to a presentation given by external commercial developers Quaybridge and Document 3 is a presentation of analysis by Carbon Trust. Within this presentation there are links to a SharePoint folder owned by Carbon Trust that we do not have access to and therefore this is information we do not hold and the links have not been provided under regulation 10(4)a, information not held.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by Quaybridge and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests. This would be due to disclosing information on costing models that competitors could use to their advantage in competitive bidding. This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which may bid for future offshore wind seabed leases, ensuring no competitive disadvantage is created.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI - 202300342635 - Information release

File type

18 page PDF

File size

3.1 MB