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The Scottish Government has granted consents and marine licences for the Caledonia North and South offshore wind farms in the outer Moray Firth, allowing developer Ocean Winds to progress plans for a two-gigawatt project. The two sites will cover a combined 429 square kilometres and are permitted to install up to 140 turbines, together generating enough electricity to power an estimated two million households a year.
The two projects
Caledonia North will be a fixed-bottom wind farm approximately 28 km from Wick and 48 km from Banff, with up to 77 turbines producing around one gigawatt. Caledonia South, further offshore at around 45 km from Wick, is a hybrid site combining fixed and floating foundations: up to 78 turbines in total, of which no more than 39 will be floating. Ocean Winds has said the Caledonia South layout is intended to help establish Scotland’s position in floating wind, which is still in its early commercial phase globally. The two consents make Caledonia one of the first ScotWind projects to clear the full offshore consent process, following the seabed leasing round completed in 2022.
The seabird question
The consents come with conditions. Before construction can begin, Ocean Winds must submit a detailed seabird compensation plan for ministerial approval, addressing the projected impact of the turbines on birds using the outer Moray Firth. Concerns about cumulative effects on seabird populations, particularly kittiwakes, gannets and puffins, have shaped much of the recent debate over Scottish offshore wind, most visibly around the 4.1 GW Berwick Bank proposal in the Firth of Forth, which the RSPB has opposed on seabird grounds. The Caledonia sites sit further from the largest seabird protection areas than Berwick Bank, but they will still form part of the cumulative pressures regulators and developers must address. Ocean Winds must also demonstrate mitigation measures for other sea users, including the fishing industry.
Investment and next steps
Ocean Winds’s latest Supply Chain Development Statement commits £1.7 billion of spending in Scotland across the two projects, covering engineering, manufacturing, ports, vessels and long-term operations and maintenance work. First Minister John Swinney called the decision “a significant step in Scotland’s progress towards tackling climate change and reaching net zero” and pointed to Scotland’s broader offshore wind pipeline. No construction timescale has been announced, and that will depend on the seabird plan being signed off and on a successful bid in a future Contracts for Difference round.
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