Ocean Winds has concluded three years of development work and submitted applications for planning consent to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate for the 2GW Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm in the outer Moray Firth.
Caledonia was awarded the site in 2022 as part of the Scottish Government’s ScotWind process.
Inheriting experience from its sponsors EDP Renewables and Engie, Ocean Winds has been developing offshore wind farms in the Moray Firth since 2010, including Moray East (operational since 2020) and Moray West (under construction) Offshore Wind Farms.
Caledonia lies immediately to the east of Moray East and will more than double Ocean Winds’ generation capacity in the Moray Firth.
Aleks Schmidt-Sweetingham, offshore consent manager, said: “Our consent application is a major milestone and comes after three years of intensive work to survey, research, study and model the natural and human environment of the Moray Firth to produce a high-quality Environmental Impact Assessment Report and I would like to thank everyone who has engaged with us to make this possible.
“The application and the full Environmental Impact Assessment Report, which covers both offshore and onshore, will be available for public consultation when confirmed by the Marine Directorate and advertised in the local and national press.”
Mark Baxter, Caledonia project director, said: “We have been developing offshore wind generation in the Moray Firth for over a decade and a half.
“We build and operate the projects we develop, so we understand the value of frontloading investment in the early stages of the project to produce a high-quality application.
“This enables the consenting authorities and their consultees to undertake their work with minimum difficulty or delay. This is especially important in the busy, competitive ScotWind environment.
“Our site and situation mean that not only can each phase of Caledonia be built with commercially established fixed foundation technology which we have optimised for cost at Moray East & Moray West, both sites can also be connected to shore using established AC technology.
“This frees Caledonia from delays caused by the lengthy waiting lists in the global DC supply chain, and means foundations are available from already-proven existing suppliers.
“There is also an opportunity to deploy floating structures in the south of the site to create a further springboard for the growth of floating offshore wind in Scotland.
“With Caledonia, Ocean Winds is doing more of what we have already successfully achieved, in the same place we have already done it. That makes us one of the lowest risk, most competitive ScotWind projects, capable of delivery in the shortest time.”