Moray West Wind Turbine Installation Nearing Halfway Mark

July 31, 2024, by Adnan Memija

UPDATE: On 16 August, the Moray West project developer, Ocean Winds, said via social media that more than half of the wind turbines were now installed.

The Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland is nearing the halfway point of its wind turbine installation, according to the latest Notice to Mariners issued by the Moray West project team.

Photo: Ocean Winds, shared on LinkedIn on 16 August 2024

So far, 28 of the 60 Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD wind turbines designated for Moray West have been installed, and work is now underway on the 29th unit.

Supplied with “Power Boost”, each turbine can generate up to 14.7 MW output. The 882 MW wind farm is being developed by Ocean Winds.

The pre-assembly activity of the 60 turbines is being managed by Siemens Gamesa, Siemens Energy’s wind business, who are also manufacturing all the 180 B108 blades for the project at their quayside factory in Hull.

Siemens Gamesa is marshalling all turbine components at Port of Nigg from where the Cadeler heavy lift vessel Wind Orca is undertaking the installations. The wind turbine installation campaign is expected to run for approximately nine to ten months.

The Wind Orca vessel arrived on site on 18 April to install the offshore wind turbine generators (WTGs) onto the previously set monopiles and transition pieces (TPs).

A few days later, Cadeler’s jack-up installed the first Siemens Gamesa wind turbine at the site located approximately 22.5 kilometres from the Caithness coastline.

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The vessel is supported by the Service Offshore Vessel (SOV) Norwind Breeze and two Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) Fob Swath 3 and Fob Swath 5.

In July, the 882 MW Moray West offshore wind project delivered the first power from the first series of wind turbines and exported it to Scotland’s National Electricity Transmission System (NETS).

The wind farm is nearing the end of the construction phase and will become fully operational in 2025 in line with the originally projected commercial operations date.