Ocean Winds Secures £2 Billion Finance For Moray West Wind Farm

Ocean Winds has announced that its Moray West Offshore Wind Farm that is part of its portfolio of UK, has secured £2 billion of non-recourse project finance and reached financial close. The key sponsorship has come from Ocean Winds and Ignitis Group, as minority shareholder. The company is a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE.

Ocean Winds said that Moray West, having a capacity of 882-MW, 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.

Ocean Winds held that 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.

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. Ocean Winds said that the offshore wind project will be generating full power by 2025. Moray West will deliver low-cost renewable energy to 1.33 million households every year.

Adam Morrison, Country Manager for Ocean Winds in the UK, held, “Reaching Financial Close demonstrates the confidence that the financial markets have in the strength of the project and its delivery partners. In Scotland the significant economic successes include the use of the key ports of Invergordon and Nigg, together with our long-term commitment to investing in Buckie as the operations and maintenance base.”

Chief Operating Officer Grzegorz Gorski said, “Ocean Winds is very proud to keep on delivering on its commercial scale projects; Moray West representing the second secured project finance in our portfolio of projects for the year 2023, after the îles d’Yeu Noirmoutier offshore wind farm in France.”

Gorski said that his firm now has close to 1.5 GW of offshore wind energy in construction worldwide, in addition to our 1.5 GW already operating.

Ocean Winds also announced recently that a $2.5 billion final investment decision (FID) is taken regarding a 496-MW offshore wind energy project in France.