Planning application has been submitted to the Scottish government’s Marine Directorate for the Caledonia offshore wind farm, which aims to generate 2GW of power in the outer Moray Firth.
The submission marks a significant milestone following ongoing development work since 2021.
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Developed by Ocean Winds, the site for the Caledonia offshore wind farm was awarded in 2022 through the ScotWind process.
The site lies immediately east of the operational Moray East offshore facility and Moray West which is currently under construction.
The project promises to more than double the generation capacity of Ocean Winds, a 50:50 joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie, in the Moray Firth region.
With an area of 423m² and a water depth ranging from 40 to 100m, the proposed wind farm could include up to 140 turbines, each with a maximum capacity of 25MW and a height of up to 355m.
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By GlobalDataThe development also includes plans for up to four offshore substation platforms and four offshore export cables making landfall at Stake Ness on the Aberdeenshire coast.
Caledonia offshore wind farm offshore consent manager Aleks Schmidt-Sweetingham stated: “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. I would like to thank everyone who has engaged with us to make this possible.
“The application and the full 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.”
Caledonia project director Mark Baxter stated: “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 […] – 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 and Moray West, [but] both sites can also be connected to shore using established AC [alternating current] technology. This frees Caledonia from delays caused by the lengthy waiting lists in the global DC [direct current] supply chain, and means foundations are available from already-proven existing suppliers.”
In August 2024, offshore wind engineering consultancy Wood Thilsted was selected to create the structural concept design for the project’s turbine foundations, utilising extensive ground and metocean data collected over the past two years across the Caledonia site.
