Ocean Winds’ plans for 2 GW Scottish project
Ocean Winds has submitted applications for planning consent to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate for the 2 GW Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm.
Image for illustration purposes.
UK, Scotland: After three years of development work, Ocean Winds has submitted applications for planning consent to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate for the 2 GW 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.
With 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). Caledonia lies immediately to the east of Moray East and will more than double the company’s 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.”
Mark Baxter, Caledonia project director, commented: “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.”
Source: T&D World
#Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm#Ocean Winds#offshore wind#Renewables#Scotland#UK#wind farm