Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm, developed by Ocean Winds, a proposed 2GW ScotWind facility in the Moray Firth has completed its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and has formally started the process of submitting applications for planning consent.
The project’s first consent application is for the onshore transmission works (substation and underground cables). This has been submitted to Aberdeenshire Council who have started their formal public consultation on the application.
Consultation on the application for the offshore works (turbines, offshore substations and offshore transmission cables) is expected to be opened by Marine Scotland in the coming weeks.
Caledonia will be Ocean Winds’ third development in the Moray Firth, joining Moray East, which came online in 2020, and Moray West, which achieved first power in July this year. The 2GW facility will double offshore wind generation in the Moray Firth.
Ruaridh Danaher, Caledonia Onshore Consent Manager, said: “This is the project’s biggest milestone, coming after three years of work to develop the project and complete the Environmental Impact Assessment. Our intensive investment in the early stages of the project mean that this is high-quality application, based on robust data, reflecting the needs of our stakeholders.
“To enable the project to be considered in full by our stakeholders, the Environmental Impact Assessment report covers both onshore and offshore infrastructure.
“The report will be published in full when the application for offshore infrastructure is opened by Marine Scotland in the coming weeks.
“In the meantime, the chapters of the report relevant to the onshore works are now available for public consultation on the Aberdeenshire Council website.”
Mark Baxter, Project Director for Caledonia, said: “Ocean Winds has been investing in the Moray Firth since the commercial dawn of the offshore wind industry in Scotland. This site – neighbouring our existing infrastructure – is in water depths which enables us to use the fixed foundations which we have optimised for low cost, low risk, rapid delivery, and our distance from shore means we can use AC connection technology instead of being at the mercy of global shortages in the HVDC supply chain.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has helped us reach this major milestone – particularly our stakeholders across the Moray Firth. The EIA report contains a huge amount of information to reflect the needs of our stakeholders, reflecting our policy to invest early in information in order to develop a high-quality application for a sound consent.
“Caledonia is one of the few ScotWind projects which can be built at high speed and low risk in a location where offshore wind is already established and therefore can be a key component of the UK Government’s Clean Power by 2030 plans.”
