A major offshore wind farm that is expected to supply 50 per cent of Scotland’s electricity has hailed new backing.
The project about 10 miles off the coast of Caithness will help the project will generate enough power for up to 1.33 million homes.
Moray West, part of the Ocean Winds portfolio, has secured a £95.5 million loan from Barclays to support the next phase of the project’s construction as part of a wider syndicated £2 billion loan injection which closed in April.
Barclays acted as a sole pre-hedge execution for the project "executing interest rate, inflation and FX hedges, protecting the project and its stakeholders from adverse market movements in a volatile macroeconomic backdrop".
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Financial close has ensured that the project can move to the next phase of supply chain activity, with installation works due to commence later this year.
Barclays said it remains as one of seven banks that have supported two project-financed offshore wind farms involved in the Contract for Difference allocation rounds in the UK looking to innovate with sophisticated offtake agreement strategies.
It executed the hedges at the point the project was awarded the Contract for Difference in July 2022 and then syndicated them to the lending banks at financial close.
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Pete Geddes, project director at Moray West, said: “The support of Barclays has contributed to Moray West reaching financial closure. This means we are now on track to commence the next phase of the project which will see the installation of the wind farm start in late 2023.
“Our close working relationship with Barclays has given us the support required to progress the project and help to meet the UK and Scottish government renewable energy targets.”
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Jamie Grant, managing director of Barclays corporate banking in Scotland, said: “Barclays expertise and sophisticated approach to the financing of such a major development in Scotland’s green economy reinforces our ability to support key clients in the renewables sector which look to innovate with revenue offtake strategies.
"With the commodity cost escalations that have been experienced recently, it is likely that more renewable developers will also consider innovation with their offtake strategies and we are well placed to support projects like Moray West.”
The deal team was led by Neil Fleming, infrastructure and project finance director at Barclays corporate banking.
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