Moray West

Following on from the development of Moray East within Zone 1 of the Crown Estates third leasing round, Moray Offshore Windfarm (West) Ltd commenced development of the second phase of the zone (Moray West) in 2016 with submission of onshore and offshore consent applications in 2018.

Moray West Offshore Wind Farm comprises up to 85 turbines, up to two substations and associated inter-array, interconnector and offshore export cables. Landfall is on the south coast of the Moray Firth in Aberdeenshire. The onshore transmission infrastructure will then connect to an onshore substation at Whitehillock (Keith), before being transmitted to the existing Blackhillock substation where it will feed into the National Electricity Transmission System.

GoBe Consultants were contracted by Moray Offshore Windfarm (West) Ltd as the lead EIA consultant for both the onshore planning application and the offshore Section 36 and Marine Licence Application.  Key GoBe responsibilities included:

  • Development and implementation of a consent strategy;
  • Constraints mapping, route optioneering and route design for onshore and offshore cables;
  • Scoping of the offshore wind farm, offshore export cable corridor, landfall, onshore cable circuits and onshore substation;
  • Site selection for onshore substation;
  • Drafting of introductory and summary EIA Report chapters;
  • Management of the Habitats Regulation Appraisal (HRA) and drafting of the Report to Inform the Appropriate Assessment.
  • Project and consents management of both onshore and offshore EIA including:
    1. Management of a team of sub-consultants;
    2. Drafting of introductory and summary EIA Report chapters, coordination and QA of all documentation;
    3. Provision of technical advice and drafting of a number of technical chapters including: benthic ecology, fish and shellfish ecology and other human activities;
    4. Management of stakeholder engagement and consultation along with attendance at stakeholder meetings / public events; and
    5. GIS and data management; and
    6. Delivery of planning application, Section 36 and Marine Licence applications within demanding programme requirements.

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