Moray West wind farm powers ahead with $2.5bn investment

Ocean Winds, a 50/50 joint venture owned by EDP Renewables and Engie has secured £2bn ($2.48bn) of non-recourse project finance and reached financial close for its 882 MW Moray West offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth, Scotland.

The project has been supported to reach this stage by its primary sponsor Ocean Winds and by Ignitis Group as a minority shareholder.

Moray West is the first UK offshore wind farm to rely in majority on corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) for the commercialisation of its output. CPPAs were signed with long-term strategic partners, for more than 50% of the project’s output. A Contract for Difference (CfD) was secured for a third of the installed capacity in the UK Allocation Round 4 (AR4) to commercialise the remainder of the project’s output.

Financial close allows the project to move to secure the remaining elements of supply chain activity in preparation for offshore installation works in late 2023. The project is set to be generating full power by 2025.