The massive Moray West offshore wind farm development 22km off the coast of the Moray Firth has secured a £95.5 million loan from Barclays to support the next phase of the project’s construction.

The loan is part of a wider syndicated £2 billion loan injection which closed in April 2023.

Moray West is part of the portfolio of Spanish firm Ocean Winds.

It is expected to supply 50% of Scotland’s electricity, generating enough power for up to 1.33 million homes, and saving around 1.1 million tonnes of co2 emissions by the time the project completes in 2025.

Barclays said it 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.”

Moray West project director Adam Morrison 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 in late 2023.

“Our close working relationship with Barclays has given us the support required to meet the UK and Scottish government renewable energy targets.”

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.