Strike price is set low (not unrealistically imo), but to be fair none of the wind farms signed their contracts for the previously agreed strike prices either, and waited for them to be time enforced, whilst they creamed the profits for the time in between (which was about 2 years), charging what they liked.
Some wind farms had a strike price as £40-50, but because we were going to be paying £100 for gas and £200 for imported nuclear it meant the wind farms were getting paid £200, as well CGT gas turbine companies got £200 also.
The CFD system is ****ed up, give the wind companies £60, but tell them they're not getting paid the most expensive price we pay on the market, if prices go up, like they currently do now. It's absolutely ludicrous that we were paying £200 for wind, when it was profitable at £50 (otherwise they wouldn't have agreed on the strike price). Absolutely bonkers way we structure our energy market.
Yeah, sure, steel has gone up, and labour too, but that's only the initial build cost, It's not going to have a massive impact on future costs as although materials may be more expensive, the process of making them should be cheaper as tech and efficiency improves.
Also there's actually deflation in construction material costs now, we had some pipe prices go up 30% and then 30% again, but since then they've come down about 30% and will probably fall further. Supply is catching up with the demand, and it's the massive demand and low production (covid) which has massively escalated construction material costs.
If the wind companies don't want to agree the strike price, just own our own FFS, and contract in companies to build them. Most major contractors have been working on wind farms for over 10 years now, there's enough experience there to do it ourselves. Obviously, we would need to be careful not to red tape ourselves to death like we've done with HS2 etc.
Also, offshore wind now needs to be able to complete with onshore wind again (legislation just changed opening the door to this), and onshore wind is far cheaper. If the offshore companies don't like the £45 price then tell them to do one, and build some onshore for an agreed £25-35.
Offering the £45 is one of the few things the government have done right recently and I'd say they've done well with renewables too since being in power, but they've completely ballsed up the contracts allowing the public to be shafted into paying high prices (paying the price cap excess in tax). Yet, they wouldn't even get a grip of the profiteering or introduce a suitable windfall tax on the companies operating within the UK.