Moray East Offshore Wind Farm

Wind Project Site

Title: Moray East Offshore Wind Farm

Status:

In Operation

Project Manager:

Diamond Green Limited, Ocean Winds, Three Gorges Dam

Turbine Developer:

Vestas Wind Systems A/S

Foundation Manufacturer:

DEME Blue Energy (DBE), EPCI contractor

Website:

External Link

Construction Start:

May 18, 2019

Operation Start:

April 1, 2022

Info Last Updated:

June 14, 2023

Contact:

Info
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Details

Technology:

Fixed Offshore Wind

Project Scale:

Commercial Farm

Turbine Model:

V164-9.5 MW

Hub Height:

105 m

Rotor Diameter:

164 m

Number of Turbines:

100

Capacity per Turbine:

9.5 MW

Installed Capacity:

950 MW

Support Structure:

Jacket Foundation

Export Cables:

AC, Buried Seafloor Cables

Export Cable Voltage:

220 kV

Number of Export Cables:

Cable Landfall:

Horizontal Directional Drill

Physical Site:

Shallow Water (<60m), Marine

Water Depth:

37-57 m

Distance from Shore:

22 km

Country:

United Kingdom

Description

Moray East is the first of two proposed wind farms in the Moray Firth, Scotland. The wind farm is managed by Ocean Winds, which is a joint venture between ENGIE and EDP Renewables (56.6% ownership), Diamond Green Limited (33.4% ownership), and China Three Gorges (10% ownership). The wind farm is comprised of three offshore wind farm sites within the Moray East Site, named Telford, Stevenson, and MacColl wind farms. Together, they consist of 100 9.5MW Vestas turbines covering 295 square kilometres 22km off the coast of Aberdeenshire. Turbine hub heights reach 105 meters, and blades span 164 meters in diameter. The project uses jacket foundations installed by DEME group. The wind farm first began producing power in June of 2021 and reached full production capacity in April 2022.

Location

Moray East is located approximately 22 kilometres off Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in the Moray Firth.

Licensing Information

2022: Scottish Government: Marine license variation – Construction and Operation of Offshore Transmission Infrastructure – MS-00009423
2020: Scottish Government: Marine License Variation – Modified Offshore Transmission Infrastructure – MS-00008919
2019: Scottish Government: MS EPS - License to disturb marine species
2014: Scottish Government: Marine licenses – Construction and operation of substation platforms, generating station, offshore transmission infrastructure, and meteorological mast
2014: Scottish Government, Marine Licenses for Stevenson, MacColl, and Telford Offshore Wind Farms (numbered 04627/19/0, 04628/19/0, 04629/19/0 respectively)

Project Timeline

April 2022 – Full power output achieved
September 2021 – Final turbine installed
June 2021 – Wind farm began exporting power
July 19, 2018 – Marine Licenses transferred to Moray East
September 2014 – Marine licenses granted

Key Environmental Issues

Moray East Offshore Windfarm engaged in a Project Environmental Monitoring Programme (PEMP) to monitor environmental effects of the windfarm. The program included pre-construction and post-construction geophysical surveys and participation in the Moray Firth tracking project, which identified salmon in the various rivers connecting to the Moray Firth.

Metadata Documents

Directional hydrophone clusters reveal evasive responses of small cetaceans to disturbance during construction at offshore windfarms (Graham et al. 2023)
Broad-Scale Responses of Harbor Porpoises to Pile-Driving and Vessel Activities During Offshore Windfarm Construction (Benhemma-Le Gall et al. 2021)
Moray East Construction Survey Summary Report (Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2020)
Moray East Pre-Construction Survey Campaign Summary Report (Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2019)
Moray Firth River Deveron Missing Salmon Project (The Deveron et al. 2019)
Moray Firth River Spey Missing Salmon Project (Spey Fishery Board et al. 2019)
Moray Firth River Oykel Missing Salmon Project (Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries et al. 2019)
Moray Firth River Findhorn Missing Salmon Project (Findhorn et al. 2019)
Moray Firth River Conon Missing Salmon Project (Cromarty Firth Fishery Board et al. 2019)
Moray Firth River Shin Missing Salmon Project (Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries et al. 2019)
Moray Firth River Ness Missing Salmon Project (Ness District Salmon Fishery Board et al. 2019)
A strategic regional Marine Mammal Monitoring Programme for assessing the population consequences of constructing the BOWL and MORL Wind Farm Developments (Thompson 2015)
Moray East Environmental Statement (Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012)

Phase	Stressor & Receptor	Design and Methods	Results	Publications	Data
Baseline	Physical Environment	Seabed sampling, video surveillance, scientific trawling In October 2010, samples were taken from 88 stations in the wind farm and transmission corridor areas. Samples included video footage and sediment, as well as 21 2m beam trawl samples to assess larger assemblages such as crab, prawns, and fish.	Complete Dominant seabed sediment habitat was classified as slightly gravelly sand with patches of shelly gravelly sand, sandy gravel, and gravel. Benthic communities were found to be rich and diverse, including polychaete worms, burrowing urchin, and bivalves, among others. No rare or protected species were discovered within the area.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Boat-based Natural Power Consultants conducted 28 boat-based bird surveys between April 2010 and March 2012.	Complete Density and population size estimates were created for six species (fulmar, gannet, kittiwake, guillemot, razorbill, and puffin). Flight directions were also recorded to indicate differences in directions across Special Protection Ara (SPA) zones.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Birds	Aerial Surveys Seven aerial surveys were undertaken in 2009 and 2010. HiDef Aerial Surveying and WWT Consulting completed the surveys.	Complete Density estimates were identified for the most numerous species (>10 birds/100 kms). Species included Fulmar, Gannet, Kittiwake, Gulls, and Auks.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	Marine Data Exchange
Baseline	Birds	GPS logging GPS loggers were attached to fulmar, kittiwake, guillemot, and razorbill species. Loggers were deployed for periods of over 36 hours.	Complete Each bird’s route foraging was plotted and binned into cells of a grid over the target area. Additional modelling was undertaken to predict foraging distributions. No Kittiwake, Guillemot, or Razorbills entered the proposed siting area, and 10% of Fulmars entered the sites.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Smolt trap and tag 850 smolts were tagged and tracked to determine marine migration routes upstream from the Moray Firth. Smolts were tracked in each of seven rivers leading to the Firth, with reports generated for each river.	Complete The baseline assessment has been complete and will be used with future studies to determine the effect of the wind farms on smolt in the Moray Firth.	Cromarty Firth Fishery Board et al. 2019, The Deveron et al. 2019, Findhorn et al. 2019, Ness District Salmon Fishery Board et al. 2019, Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries et al. 2019, Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries et al. 2019, Spey Fishery Board et al. 2019	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Fish	Sand eel dredging and grabbing During night hours between the end of January and beginning of March, sand eel dredging and grabbing occurred to provide information on the distribution of sand eels in the wind farm and transmission corridor.	Complete Three species of sand eel were discovered: Raitt’s, Smooth, and Greater sand eel, with Raitt’s sand eel accounting for 89.8% of sand eel discovered. Overall population within the wind farm area was found to be patchy and relatively low.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Tagging and telemetry Data was collected from 37 tagged harbour seals between 1989 and 2009. A Bayesian state space model was applied to all raw data to provide position estimates.	Complete The entire Moray Firth is considered potential habitat. Seal presence was analysed for connection to water depth, sediment type, and distance from shore.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Photo identification The MMMP aims to conduct monitoring of harbour seals (land-based photo ID) and bottlenose dolphins (boat-based photo ID) in order to determine how populations will be affected by the two new wind farms (MORL and BOWL) in the Moray Firth. Baseline data were compiled in 2015.	Complete Baseline data have been compiled for harbour seal and bottlenose dolphin populations in the Moray Firth.	Thompson 2015	University of Aberdeen. 2014
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Tagging and telemetry, aerial surveying 39 grey seals were tagged between 1993 and 2002 to analyse pup movement at breeding sites. Data was collected until 2009, and aerial survey data were included between 1996 and 2009.	Complete Spatial usage of grey seals around MORL/BOWL (Moray and Beatrice) proposed development sites was characterized.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Marine Mammals	Passive acoustic monitoring A combination of T-PODs and C-PODs was used to detect harbour porpoise and dolphin occurrences in the Moray Firth between 2009 and 2010.	Complete Both harbour porpoise and dolphins were detected in the Moray Firth, both within the proposed windfarm area. Harbour porpoises are expected to be present on a daily basis, while dolphin detections remained low. Importantly, no bottlenose dolphins were detected.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2012	No data publicly available.
Baseline	Physical Environment	Geophysical and geotechnical surveys Geophysical and geotechnical surveys including echo sounders, sonar, sub-bottom profilers, and magnetometers, among others, were carried out between 2014 and 2019.	Complete Surveying characterized various seabed features (e.g., sediment type, debris identification) and water depth in the Moray East site and OfTI Corridor.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2019	No data publicly available.
Operations	Avoidance Marine Mammals	Passive Acoustic Monitoring An array of echolocation click detectors (CPODs) were deployed throughout the construction phase of two wind farms, 2017-2019.	Complete Porpoise displacement was observed at up to 12km from pile-driving activities and 4 km from construction vessels.	Benhemma-Le Gall et al. 2021	Benhemma-Le Gall et al. 2021
Operations	Habitat Change Physical Environment	Varying bathymetry and geological surveys Surveys were carried out with autonomous vessels and echobeam sounders to determine the effect of pile driving vessels on the sea floor post-construction.	Complete In several locations cavity depths were found to be close enough to cable routs remedial works were required. Some backfilling was performed to fill cavities.	Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited 2020	No data publicly available.
Operations	Avoidance Marine Mammals	Acoustic Monitoring A linear array of seven clusters of directional hydrophones was deployed within the Moray East Offshore Windfarm site between 21 August and 2 September 2019, when piling occurred using soft-start mitigation measures.	Complete Data indicates porpoise movements showed a directional response away from the sound source during the piling soft-start compared to baseline data, indicating success of the mitigation measure.	Graham et al. 2023	Dryad: data and code