The Moray East wind farm offshore Scotland has, following completion of works, achieved its full contracted output of 900 MW to the UK National Transmission Grid, Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Limited said.
The wind farm has been able to produce electricity while construction was underway. 1,415,000 MWhrs was supplied from June 2021 to March 2022 – enough to meet the total annual electricity needs of all households in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, with enough left over for most of the County of Moray as well, the developer said.
”Offshore wind has a unique advantage; we don’t have to wait until work has finished to switch on. Output can start after the first few turbines have been commissioned and increase incrementally as work progresses. Over the period of 9 months from June last year, as more and more of our 100 turbines were installed, we supplied more and more electricity to the gird – 1,415 000 MWhrs,” Enrique Alvarez , Project Director for Moray East, said.
Moray East comprises 100 Vestas V164-9.5MW turbines installed some 22 kilometres off Aberdeenshire.
Ocean Winds, a joint venture (50:50) between ENGIE and EDPR, is a majority shareholder of Moray East.
”The UK urgently needs new low-cost, low-carbon generation, and lots of it. Offshore wind is the quickest, cheapest way to provide it. The more offshore wind that is on the grid, the less consumers are exposed to increasing gas prices,” Dan Finch , Managing Director of Ocean Winds UK, said.
”Ocean Winds has a long-term commitment to the Moray Firth. We are ready to build Moray East’s sister project, Moray West, and we have started the planning and consenting work for our new Caledonia site – also adjacent to Moray East. The faster we can make those plans reality, the faster we can bring an increasing downward pressure on bills, in contrast to the upward pressure associated with gas.”
The 850 MW Moray West will comprise up to 85 wind turbines , two offshore substations , and a total of 65 kilometres of export cables that will transport the electricity from the offshore wind farm to a landfall location east of Sandend Bay on the Aberdeenshire Coast and further to the onshore substation . The wind farm is expected to produce first power in 2024.
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