Floating offshore wind power solutions developer Ocean Winds announced that its Moray West Offshore Wind Farm in Scotland secured £2bn (~$2.4 billion) of non-recourse project finance and reached the financial close.

Ocean Winds, a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE, supported the project as the primary sponsor, while Ignitis Group was the minority shareholder.

Corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) were signed with long-term strategic partners for over 50% of the project’s output. Moray West is the first UK offshore wind farm to rely on CPPAs to commercialize its production. The CPPAs were executed in partnership with ENGIE.

Moray West aims to provide access to long-term, low-cost, low-carbon electricity to 1.33 million households annually.

Last June, EDP Renewables announced it would invest €1.5 billion (~$1.58 billion) in Ocean Winds through a 50:50 joint venture with ENGIE.

A contract for difference (CfD) was also secured for a third of the installed capacity in the UK allocation round 4 (AR4) to commercialize the remainder of the project’s output. Moray West is the first CfD AR4 offshore project to reach a financial close.

The project is expected to generate full power by 2025.

Chief Operating Officer for Ocean Winds Grzegorz Gorski said: “Moray West represents the second secured project finance in our portfolio of projects for 2023, after the îles d’Yeu Noirmoutier offshore wind farm in France. We now have nearly 1.5 GW of offshore wind energy in construction worldwide, and our 1.5 GW is already operating. Building on our local engagement, we are advancing globally to provide clean energy to consumers and companies, accompanying them in their energy transition.”

In November 2022, ENGIE and Google announced a 12-year 100 MW corporate power purchase agreement to support Moray West offshore wind development. ENGIE will provide Google with over 5 TWh of green power from the 900 MW offshore wind farm set to begin generating power in 2025.