Moray West Wind Farm is an 882 MW

offshore wind farm Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of ca ...

located in the outer

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...

off the coast of north-east

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is located adjacent to the

Moray East Wind Farm Moray East Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm located in the outer Moray Firth off the coast of Scotland. It is located adjacent to the Moray West Wind Farm, both of which are just south of the Beatrice Wind Farm. The wind farm is around north ...

, both of which are just south of the

Beatrice Wind Farm The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm now known as Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project, is an offshore wind farm close to the Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth, part of the North Sea 13 km off the north east coast of Scotland. Hi ...

. The wind farm is around north of

Buckie Buckie () is a burgh town (defined as such in List of burghs in Scotland, 1888) on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically in Banffshire, Buckie was the largest town in the county until the administrative area was ...

, and from the coast of

Caithness Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...

. The Moray West wind farm is operated by Ocean Winds, a 50:50 joint venture between EDP Renewables and

Engie Engie SA (stylised in all caps as ENGIE) is a French multinational electric utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie. Its activities cover electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear power, renewable energy ...

. Ocean Winds have commercial power purchase agreements with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, respectively for 473 MW and 100 MW of power from the wind farm. It was consented in 2019, with first power was exported in July 2024 and the farm reached full power output in April 2025.

Technology

The wind farm has 60

Siemens Gamesa Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A. was formed in 2017 in a merger of Siemens AG, Siemens' Wind Power division with Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, S.A.; it is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. The co ...

SG 14-222 DD turbines, each rated at 14.7 MW. The long blades were built in

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

. The turbines are mounted on tall towers and monopile foundations driven into the seabed. Moray West has two offshore substations and of subsea power export cables. These make landfall at West Head, between

Sandend Sandend () is a small fishing village near Banff and Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, typical of the area. It was "a considerable seatown as early as 1624". In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was an active village. There were two fis ...

and

Portsoy Portsoy () is a small town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historically, Portsoy was in Banffshire until 1975. The original name may come from ''Port Saoithe'', meaning "saithe harbour". Portsoy is located on the Moray Firth coast of northeast Scotl ...

. The original proposal to use Sandend beach was opposed by locals. A new underground cable transmits the power to a new substation and National Grid connection at

Blackhillock Substation Blackhillock Substation is an electrical substation located in the north east of Scotland, near the town of Keith in Moray. It is owned and operated by Scottish Southern Electricity Network (SSEN). Covering an area the size of 24 football pit ...

History

The Port of Nigg was used as the marshalling facility for the construction. In 2019, the project received all the required consents. In summer and autumn 2022, offshore geophysical and geotechnical investigations plus

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

surveys were undertaken within the wind farm site and power export cable corridor. In July 2022, the project was awarded

Contracts for Difference In finance, a contract for difference (CFD) is a financial agreement between two parties, commonly referred to as the "buyer" and the "seller." The contract stipulates that the buyer will pay the seller the difference between the current value o ...

for 294 MW at £37.35/MWh (2012 prices) as part of Allocation Round 4. Subsequently, part of this capacity was re-bid into Allocation Round 6 at a higher price, with 73.5 MW awarded contracts at £54.23/MWh in September 2024. The first turbine was installed in April 2024. In July 2024, the wind farm was connected to the grid, by which point all of the foundations and nearly a third of the turbines had been installed. On 24 April 2025, the wind farm was officially switched on by Ian Murray the Scottish Secretary.{{Cite web , date=2025-04-24 , title=Moray West offshore windfarm to be switched on , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8v5z5rpvlo , access-date=2025-05-04 , website=BBC News , language=en-GB

References

External links

Official website
Wind farms in Scotland Offshore wind farms in the North Sea