Wind Energy – Moray West Financial Close
Moray West Offshore Wind Farm, part of the Ocean Winds portfolio of UK projects, is proud to announce that it has secured £2bn of non-recourse project finance and reached financial close.
The project has been supported to reach this stage by its primary sponsor Ocean Winds, a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE dedicated to offshore wind, and by Ignitis Group as 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, enabling the rapid progress of the project.
The vital CPPAs were originated in partnership with ENGIE and represent the largest contracts of their kind implemented in the UK market to date. 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. Moray West is the first CfD AR4 offshore project to reach financial close.
Financial Close allows the project to move to secure the remaining elements of supply chain activity in preparation for offshore installation works in later 2023. The project is set to be generating full power by 2025.
Moray West remains on track to deliver low-cost renewable energy, supporting the UK and Scottish renewable energy targets and providing the equivalent of 1.33 million households a year with access to long-term, low-cost, low-carbon electricity.
