The 950 MW Moray East offshore wind farm has started exporting power to the UK grid, Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Ltd said.
The wind farm is still under construction, but the engineering methodology used enables power to be exported before all of the wind farm’s 100 Vestas V164-9.5MW turbines have been installed, the developer said.
Dan Finch , Managing Director of Ocean Winds UK Ltd, said: “This is the first output from the first turbines of our first project. Our ambitions in the Moray Firth are very much for the long term. We look forward to completing Moray East to its full 950 MW capacity; to winning the Contract for Difference (CfD) auction which will enable us to construct Moray West, and to competing for ScotWind leases including development in the Moray Firth; all before the end of this year.”
The wind farm exported its first power to the national grid via its new substation south of New Deer in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on Saturday, 5 June, the developer said.
”Our 950MW windfarm (more than 22km from shore and in water more than 50m deep) marks a key milestone in the global development of the offshore wind industry. Its unique engineering, cutting edge technology and location have reduced the cost of renewable power by two thirds in comparison with most offshore windfarms built to date in the UK,” Moray East Project Director Marcel Sunier said.
”First Generation is a long awaited and hard earned milestone for the project. It represents the culmination of more than a decade of effort, when commercial scale offshore generation, in deeper waters, farther from shore was a concept rather than a reality.”
As of 31 May, Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s jack-ups Bold Tern and Blue Tern installed 44 of the wind farm’s turbines at the site some 22 kilometres off the Aberdeenshire coast.
Moray Offshore Windfarm East Ltd (MOWEL), a joint venture company owned by Ocean Winds (56.6 per cent), Diamond Green Limited (33.4 per cent), and CTG (10 per cent), plans to fully commission the wind farm in 2022.