EDinburgh, 20Th DECEMBER 2022
Plans for Onshore Transmission Infrastructure published
Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm has published its Onshore Transmission Infrastructure Scoping Report. This outlines plans for the onshore transmission infrastructure which will connect the wind farm to the National Grid.
The infrastructure will consist of an underground cable landfall site on the West Aberdeenshire coast, a new electricity substation in the vicinity of New Deer and an underground cable route connecting the two sites.
The Scoping Report has been submitted to Aberdeenshire Council and pre-application consultation events will be held in various community locations in Aberdeenshire in Spring 2023.
Mark Baxter, Project Director said:
“Caledonia is one of the few ScotWind projects which is geographically able to use AC transmission, rather than the DC technology needed to overcome significant distances from shore. That means Caledonia can proceed at pace to supply Scotland with local low-cost, low-carbon electricity because there is no requirement for a DC-AC inverter station, with its additional land and environmental impact.”
“With the exception of the substation, all the onshore transmission infrastructure will be underground. After the works are complete, it will not be visible. The scoping report identifies a broad corridor for the cable route, which will be refined through local engagement.
“We will publish details of a series of pre application consultation events in spring to provide the opportunity to discuss our proposals with local communities.”
The Caledonia project team held their first round of consultation events on the offshore scoping report in November 2022 and are now undertaking a wide range of surveys, before moving on to compile an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA).
The proposed 2GW wind farm sits adjacent to Ocean Winds’ Moray East, which came online in 2020, and Moray West, which is currently under construction and is due to be operational by early 2025.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For media enquiries please contact Craig Milroy, Communications Manager on Craig.Milroy@oceanwinds.com or 07584 608842
About Caledonia Offshore Windfarm
Operational in 2030, the 2GW Caledonia development will mark two decades of continuous investment by Ocean Winds in the Moray Firth, providing opportunities for local growth.
With expected capacity of 2GW, Caledonia is expected to double the capacity of the Moray Firth and will be capable of supplying around two million homes with green, low-cost electricity.
The site was award to Ocean Winds under the Scottish Government’s ScotWind process and will join Moray East and Moray West as the company’s third offshore wind farm in the UK.
- Site area 429km2
- Water depths: 40 – 100m
- Expected capacity – 2GW
- Expected to commence generation – 2030
About Ocean Winds
Oceans Wind (OW) is an international company dedicated to offshore wind energy and created as a 50-50 joint venture, owned by EDP Renewables and ENGIE. Based on our belief that offshore wind energy is an essential part of the global energy transition, we develop, finance, build and operate offshore wind farm projects all around the world.
When EDPR and ENGIE combined their offshore wind assets and project pipeline to create OW in 2019, the company had a total of 1.5 GW under construction and 4.0 GW under development. OW has been adding rapidly to that portfolio and is now on a trajectory to reach the 2025 target of 5 to 7 GW of projects in operation, or construction, and 5 to 10 GW under advanced development. In 2022, OW’s offshore wind gross capacity already reaches 14.6 GW.
OW, headquartered in Madrid, is currently present in 8 countries, and primarily targets markets in Europe, the United-States and selected parts of Asia, from where most of the growth is expected to come.