A new era has dawned in the UK offshore wind sector, with last month's announcement that the first planning application has been submitted for a so-called Round 3 wind farm off Scotland. The application to build up to 1.5 gigawatts of capacity at three sites in the Moray Firth - a triangular inlet of the North Sea near Inverness - was filed by project developer Moray Offshore Renewables (MOR), owned by Portugal's EDP Renewables (EDPR) and Spain's Repsol. Reports suggest the project will cost roughly ￡4.5 billion ($7.2 billion), although a MOR spokesman says it's too early to say as EDPR and Repsol have yet to decide capacity or turbine design at the three sites. The developers said in their planning application they are considering turbines with a capacity of 3.6-8 MW. The first site is likely to use 3.6 MW turbines, with bigger units at the other two. Each site is likely to have roughly 500 MW of capacity.
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