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 of the Moray coast, and from the coast of Caithness.
The wind farm was consented in 2014 and construction began in 2019, The first power was exported in June 2021 and the farm reached full power output in April 2022.
Technology
The wind farm includes 100 Vestas V164-9.5 MW turbines for a total generating capacity of 950 MW. These have a diameter rotor, with a hub height of and a tip height of.The wind farm includes three offshore substations and uses three 220 kV AC export cables to transmit generated power to the national grid, connected via a new substation at New Deer. The cable landfall location is at Inverboyndie bay, west of Banff, Aberdeenshire, and the cables were pulled through ducts which extend offshore to minimise environmental impacts. The export cables are long, with offshore and onshore. The array cables for the wind farm are 66 kV.
The operations and maintenance base for the wind farm is located in Fraserburgh Harbour. This includes an O&M building—with control room, offices, and workshops—plus berthing facilities and storage areas.
History
The wind farm received consent in 2014, and received support under the Contracts for Difference scheme at £57.50/MWh in 2017.In 2019, Construction of the wind farm commenced, with DEME Offshore installing pin-piles for the tripod jacket foundations using their jack-up vessel Apollo.
The first turbine was installed in January 2021 by the Fred. Olsen jack-up vessel Bold Tern. When the 64th turbine was installed in July, the project became Scotland's largest offshore wind farm. The final turbine was installed in September 2021.
The wind farm began exporting power in June 2021.
In September 2021, the operations base in Fraserburgh was officially opened by Michael Matheson, at the time the Scottish Government Cabinet secretary for net zero and energy.
Full power output was achieved in April 2022, and was commissioned. However, as market prices had increased above the CfD price due to the 2021 United Kingdom natural gas supplier crisis, the operator deferred the CfD start.