Ashurst advises on financing for Moray West offshore wind farm

Moray West is the first UK offshore wind farm to rely on corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) for the commercialisation of the majority of its output. CPPAs were signed with long-term strategic partners for more than 50% of the project’s output. A Contract for Difference (CfD) was secured for a third of the installed capacity in the UK Allocation Round 4 (AR4) to commercialise the remainder of the project’s output. Moray West is the first CfD AR4 offshore project to reach financial close. The project is set to be generating full power by 2025 and will provide the equivalent of 1.33 million households a year with access to long-term, low-cost, low-carbon electricity.

The Ashurst team was led by partners David Wadham and Nick Hilder and partner-elect Lindsey Bouchara, supported by partner-elect Pete Grayson, consultant Mick Smith, senior associates Ffion Cooksammy and Laura Birkinshaw-Miller, associates Amy McCalmont and Zarin Begum, junior associates Ciaran Rutherfurd and Oscar Jeremy and trainee Charles Guo.

Partner David Wadham commented: "Building on our relationship with Ocean Winds from the financing of the Moray East offshore wind farm in 2018, we are delighted to have supported them and their funders on bringing this exciting project to a successful financial close. The use of multiple long-term CPPAs as the backbone of a complex revenue stack for the project alongside a CfD is a first for the UK market and demonstrates the commercial attractiveness of large-scale offshore wind generation to corporate offtakers, as well as its competitiveness."