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Posted at 07/8/2023 06:28 by ariane BP planning for subsidy-free offshore wind farmsBy a Daily Business reporter | August 7, 2023 BP has ambitious offshore plans Energy giant BP is looking to build two huge subsidy-free wind farms in British waters in a move that would enhance its credentials with the green lobby and taxpayers. Work could begin on the Morgan and Mona projects in the Irish Sea as soon as next year without contracts from the UK government to guarantee their revenues. The wind farms together would boast up to 214 turbines about 20 miles off the coasts of north Wales and northwest England and could power 3.4 million homes. Industry experts believe chief executive Bernard Looney’s timescale may be ambitious, given that the company has yet to apply for planning consent, which can take several years to secure. However, he is keen to shift opinion towards the oil and gas majors who are struggling to convince the public and policymakers that they are focusing on renewable sources of energy. Large scale wind farms in UK waters have been supported by subsidies, often by “contracts for difference” which guarantee that consumers pay a fixed price for electricity generated, topping up market prices with subsidies when required and offering revenue certainty to developers. The BP boss told The Times: “We may not enter any [contracts for difference] auction actually, because our strategy is to use the electrons [electricity] for our own use where we can. There’s a lot of green electricity demand for us in the UK.” BP planned to invest £1 billion in electric vehicle charging in Britain and to build green hydrogen plants on Teesside, he said. He says the big issue has been the grid connection which he believed the company is “very close” to securing. “I think the teams have made really, really good progress, which is what is giving us more confidence around maybe having a shorter lease period in terms of lease payments,” he said. |
Posted at 05/8/2023 06:22 by adrian j boris August 4, 2023, by Nadja SkopljakFrench telecommunications corporation Orange has taken delivery of its new cable laying and repair vessel (CLRV), said to be designed for the maintenance of cables for offshore wind projects. The vessel, named Sophie Germain after the pioneering French mathematician and philosopher, is currently on its way from Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard to France. The CLRV is expected to arrive at Orange Marine’s base of La Seyne sur Mer around mid-August, when it will replace Raymond Croze, launched in 1983. The newbuild vessel was designed by Norway’s VARD and is of the VARD 9 03 design for the maintenance of submarine cables, both fiber-optic telecommunication cables and inter-array power cables used for offshore wind farms. The cable layer is 100 meters long, has a beam of 18.8 meters and a deadweight capacity of 1,800 DWT, can achieve a speed of 14.5 knots and has accommodation facilities for 76 persons. It has three cable tanks to carry fiber optic and power cables, one of which is fitted with a carousel system. This is Colombo Dockyard’s first-ever CLRV to be delivered to the European market from Sri Lanka. To remind, Orange revealed at the end of 2020 that it was targeting the offshore wind sector with the order of a cable vessel specially designed for the maintenance of submarine cables, including inter-array cables used on offshore wind farms. ”We will have a new and high-performance tool, with a low environmental footprint, which will allow us to offer high-quality services for several decades to our customers, not only owners of submarine telecommunications cables but also operators of offshore wind farms,” Didier Dillard, CEO of Orange Marine, said at the time. |
Posted at 16/7/2023 08:28 by adrian j boris How Big Oil Hijacked Germany’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Offshore Wind AuctionBy Alex Kimani - Jul 14, 2023, 6:00 PM CDT BP secured leases at two North Sea sites off the coast of Helgoland with total generating potential of about four gigawatts, paying a total of $7.5 billion. TotalEnergies--throu The U.S. government is considering opening 30 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico near Texas and Louisiana to offshore wind energy projects. European oil and gas supermajors BP Plc (NYSE:BP) and TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) have won all of the capacity on offer in Germany’s 7GW offshore wind auction, the country’s biggest in history. BP secured leases at two North Sea sites off the coast of Helgoland with total generating potential of about four gigawatts, paying a total of $7.5 billion. The new sites--BP's first offshore wind projects in Germany--will nearly double the company’s global offshore wind pipeline. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies--throu “These awards are a huge milestone for BP's decarbonization plans in Germany and are a strong reflection of our wider strategy. The renewable power we aim to produce will anchor the significant demand we expect for green electrons for our German operations," Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, BP's EVP for gas and low-carbon energy, said. But not everyone is particularly pleased with these giant clean energy projects. Multiple bidders, including the winning bids, pledged to build without any subsidies or state support aka ‘‘negati Indeed, WindEurope has called for an end to financial bid auctions after BP’s and Total’s historic wins: “Crucially the European Union wants to strengthen its energy security with competitive and home-grown renewables. The EU needs as much new wind energy capacity as it can get, as fast as it can get it. All the money paid in negative bidding is money our companies cannot invest in other wind energy projects. European governments should therefore not follow the German example of negative bidding. For example the industrial capacity for the construction of wind turbines, foundations and the installation vessels. But investments are also needed in grids, ports and skilled workers. Negative bidding is unhelpful here. Companies along the wind energy supply chain will have to work with even tighter margins, as developers pass on the extra costs of negative bidding to them,” the trade body said. Gulf Of Mexico Gearing For Massive Offshore Wind Scheme Back in the United States, the offshore wind sector is beginning to garner some serious attention after receiving more than its fair share of flak by the former president. Last year, the Biden administration outlined a range of clean energy initiatives, key among them plans to hold the largest-ever sale of offshore wind leases in U.S. history and accelerate the deployment of new power lines to transmit renewable electricity across the country. At the center of the offshore push was the sale of six commercial leases in the New York Bight between Long Island and New Jersey, the most successful offshore wind lease auction in history. The 488,000 acres offshore wind lease auction fetched a record $4.37 billion from companies looking to develop the waters, with the installed capacity expected to be between 5.6 GW and 7 GW, enough to power 2 million homes. The Department of Energy also launched a Building a Better Grid initiative that will tap billions of dollars in funding from the $1T infrastructure law passed in November to finance new lines and grid upgrades. Well, the Biden administration is planning to roll out a giant offshore wind project that will dwarf New York Bight. According to Politico, the U.S. government is considering opening 30 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico near Texas and Louisiana to offshore wind energy projects, part of Biden’s goal to build 30 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2030, enough to power more than 10 million homes. According to a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. will need more than 2,100 wind turbines, at least 2,100 foundations, more than 11,000 kilometers of cables and five wind turbine installation vessels to achieve its offshore wind energy target. Currently, the country has more than 70,000 existing wind turbines listed in continental U.S. Perfect Fit Though the Gulf’s waters haven’t sprouted any wind turbines yet, there are several reasons why the Gulf of Mexico is a perfect fit as an offshore wind hub. First off, the Gulf Coast also has an abundance of companies and workers with decades of experience in producing energy offshore. According to the Energy Information Administration, Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 15% of total U.S. crude oil production. Major fields include Eugene Island block 330 oil field, Atlantis Oil Field, and the Tiber oilfield (discovered 2009) while notable oil platforms include Baldpate, Bullwinkle, Mad Dog, Magnolia, Mars, Petronius, and Thunder Horse. “We have a really mature base for energy. We’ve got the know-how,” Lefton said. The people, the companies, the manufacturers that know how to do [Outer Continental Shelf] energy development are in the Gulf of Mexico,” the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management director Amanda Lefton has told Politico. According to Hayes Framme, government relations manager for North America at Danish wind giant Ørsted A/S (OTCPK:DNNGY), the Gulf’s existing oil and gas infrastructure represents “a historic expertise.” “One of the things that makes the Gulf area attractive is the fact that you’ve got a workforce that is accustomed to working on rigs in the ocean. It’s not like you have to build an industry. What you have to do here is basically help an existing industry evolve,’’ Michael Hecht, the president and CEO of Greater New Orleans, says jobs in the Gulf’s traditional oil and gas industry have declined during the past decade, creating a sense of urgency to make a transition that allows people to retain their skills. The Gulf could also become an important hydrogen hub, with wind power being used to generate green hydrogen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industries such as long-haul trucking, fertilizer manufacturing and aviation. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com |
Posted at 22/4/2023 07:49 by maywillow worldoilVINCI wins $7 billion offshore wind contract in North Sea World Oil Staff April 21, 2023 (WO) – VINCI won a €7 billion ($7.68 billion) contract to design, build and install three offshore windfarm energy converter platforms in the North Sea for a German operator for a total capacity of 6 GW. The consortium made up of Dragados Offshore – a subsidiary of Cobra IS – and Siemens Energy has been awarded by TenneT (the Dutch-German transmission system operator) a contract to design, build and install the three offshore windfarm energy converter platforms in the North Sea. The converter platforms will collect the alternating current generated by several wind farms and convert it into high voltage direct current (HVDC) which will then be reconverted into alternating current at onshore stations approximately 200 km away in the German towns of Wilhelmshaven and Heide. The construction of these converter platforms, each weighing around 34,000 tonnes, will generate more than 2,000 jobs per platform providing workload until 2031. This project is part of Germany's Energy Transition Plan, which calls for the construction of a major offshore wind power generation network. Dragados Offshore was recently awarded six other HVDC projects of the same type. |
Posted at 06/3/2023 10:09 by sarkasm Orsted Joins Global Offshore Wind Alliance06 March 2023 - 09:36AM Dow Jones News By Dominic Chopping Danish renewable-energy company Orsted AS said Monday that it has joined the Global Offshore Wind Alliance to support the faster deployment of offshore wind. The Global Offshore Wind Alliance is a new global organization that brings together governments, the private sector, international organizations and other stakeholders to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind power. The alliance was launched last year at COP27 by the International Renewable Energy Agency, the Global Wind Energy Council and the Danish government. "Today, it often takes longer to plan than to build an offshore wind farm," Orsted Chief Executive Mads Nipper said. "Governments and the private sector must collaborate to create an enabling regulatory environment and streamline permitting processes. Through GOWA, we can fast-track offshore wind deployment," he said. GOWA member countries include Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Saint Lucia, the U.K. and the U.S., with more countries expected to sign up. Orsted said that by joining GOWA it seeks to share knowledge and best practice to help meet the alliance's ambition of seeing at least 380 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity built by 2030 and an installed capacity increase of at least 70 gigawatts a year from 2030. Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj (END) Dow Jones Newswires March 06, 2023 04:21 ET (09:21 GMT) |
Posted at 07/8/2022 20:19 by waldron Wood To Design 100MW Floating Wind Farm Off Scotlandby Bojan Lepic | Rigzone Staff | Sunday, August 07, 2022 Wood To Design 100MW Floating Wind Farm Off Scotland Wood has been awarded the principal designer and pre-FEED scope for Salamander – the 100MW floating wind farm development off Scotland. Engineering and project management company Wood has been awarded the principal designer and pre-FEED scope for Salamander – the 100MW floating wind farm development off Scotland. The Salamander project, a joint venture between Simply Blue Group, Ørsted, and Subsea 7, will be a major contributor to ensuring the UK government’s target of delivering 5GW of operational floating offshore wind by 2030 is both achievable and to the maximum benefit of public and private stakeholders. The pioneering project is designed to provide the Scottish supply chain with an early capacity development opportunity, enabling it to play a much greater role in subsequent large-scale floating offshore wind buildout. The project will deploy innovative and cutting-edge floating offshore wind technologies to support the cost reduction and learning journey needed for the commercial deployment of floating offshore wind. “Given Scotland’s enviable renewable energy resources, the country has a tremendous opportunity to cement its position as a global leader in the fast-growing floating offshore wind market. Developments like the Salamander project will play a vital role in providing low-carbon energy for the region and in helping the UK to meet its ambitious decarbonization targets. We are proud to be guiding the development of this innovative project and which could set the standard for future floating wind developments across the globe,” Azad Hessamodini, Executive President of Wood Consulting, said. Wood will undertake and manage a system-level pre-FEED to enable the planning, costing, and risk assessment of a FEED design process. As part of the scope, Wood will manage the interfaces with the foundation designer and provide design services for the subsea and onshore cables as well as grid and onshore electrical connections. The scope also includes wind turbine generator OEM engagement, collation of site data, ports, transport and installation analysis, and O&M strategy and certification. Salamander is intended to be progressed through the innovation track of Crown Estate Scotland’s forthcoming Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas leasing round. Opening in August 2022, the leasing round will grant seabed leases through an auction process, which will be split into two pots – one for smaller scale innovation projects of less than 100 MW and one for larger projects linked to oil and gas infrastructure. “Salamander will provide a vital stepping-stone to delivering Scotland’s future commercial-scale offshore wind buildout. This project can demonstrate a pathway to reducing cost, reducing risk, and developing Scotland as a destination for innovation, in time for the upcoming wave of larger-scale developments from 2030 onwards. There’s no other project that offers such valuable and broad learnings for Scottish industry and stakeholders over the next few years. We look forward to working with the team at Wood to progress Salamander to the next stage of development,” Huw Bell, Salamander Project Director, added. This award builds on the relationship Wood already has with Simply Blue Group, having previously been awarded a pre-FEED contract for a proposed floating offshore wind farm located off the west coast of Ireland. To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone. |
Posted at 18/7/2022 08:50 by gibbs1 Wind Turbines and French Property Prices18th July 2022 A new study finds wind turbines have little or no impact on property prices. Or does it? As is the case in many other countries, wind turbines are a hot topic in France. The installations are regularly the subject of litigation, as we have previously reported in our pages . One of the frequent criticisms made by opponents is that they lead to a reduction in the value of real estate located nearby. In an attempt to provide some clarity to the debate, the French environment and energy management agency ADEME (Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie) has undertaken a major study of the issue. The agency examined 1.5 million real estate sales between 2015 and 2020, which it cross-referenced with the installation dates of wind turbines. ADEME concludes that wind power has no impact on the number of sales, and almost zero impact on the price of property. They consider the impact is close to that of other infrastructures (electricity pylons, relay antennas, etc.) and that there is a "considerable" gap between real and perceived impact. According to the agency, the average impact on prices is only marginal - a decrease of around -1.5% of the value of a property, which the agency states is "5 to 15 times less than the margin of error of estate agents in rural areas." Most of the coverage of the report in the press in France has reiterated this line, but a closer examination shows their conclusion to be more nuanced. In particular, ADEME add a strong caveat, admitting that the study did not cover properties located less than 2km from a wind turbine, stating that "the low number of observations in the 0-2km range does not allow robust observations to be drawn (...) on a segment that is nevertheless the one where it would be logical to observe the strongest impacts". In other words, there were not enough sub 2km sales to be able to make an assessment. The authors also admit their conclusions exclude the impact on properties of character, a "real estate segment on which wind turbines are likely to have the strongest negative impact," they state. Although the agency admits a risk can persist for "exceptional" properties, (castle, manor, luxury residence, situation or remarkable building), there are few such properties amongst the general housing stock and they account for less than 10% of houses sold during the period 2015 to 2020. As a result, the agency was similarly unable to assess the impact on such properties. In short, for properties of character and for those within 2km in of wind turbines, they are unable to say whether there is a reduction in the value of such properties. Indeed, the authors themselves state: "we have identified two areas for further study - high end properties and properties in proximity to wind turbines." The study also notes that the impact of wind power on real estate appears to be stronger in the north of France, which they consider might result from the high density of wind turbines, and on the Mediterranean coast, due to the coastal and tourist nature of the area and the high price of property. To complement the statistical analysis, the agency also undertook surveys of professionals and residents living near wind turbines. Although they wrote to 16 estate agents, only one provided a response. Not one notaire took part in the survey, yet both the notaires and the estate agents might have expected to have made a critically important contribution to the study. Only 124 residents living less than 5km from wind turbines were interviewed with only 3% of them citing the proximity of wind turbines among the three main factors that devalue a property. France Insider News |
Posted at 03/4/2022 09:45 by maywillow SKYSophie Morris Political reporter @itssophiemorris Sunday 3 April 2022 10:15, UK Sky News Grant Shapps has pushed back against reported proposals to increase the number of onshore windfarms as the government prepares to unveil its energy security strategy next week. The transport secretary told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday programme that onshore windfarms are "eyesores" and damage the environment, adding that he personally does not favour "a vast increase" in the number of them. It had been reported that Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wanted to double onshore wind power by 2030, and treble it by 2035. Onshore wind farms 'an eyesore' Looking ahead to the government's energy strategy reveal next week Mr Shapps told Sky News the government "will be looking for a greater mix to produce our energy", adding: "You might expect to see more nuclear reactors, nuclear power." Asked if planning laws should be relaxed to allow for more onshore windfarms, the transport secretary said: "I don't favour a vast increase in onshore wind farms, for pretty obvious reasons - they sit on the hills there and can create something of an eyesore for communities as well as actual problems of noise as well. "So I think for reasons of environmental protection, the way to go with this is largely, not entirely, but largely off-sea." Pressed on whether that means the idea of a big increase in the number of onshore wind farms is effectively off the table for now, he added: "I'd urge you to wait for the energy strategy later in the week. "But my thinking is what you really want to do is develop in other ways - nuclear, we will have offshore wind. I don't think you want a huge expansion of onshore wind. "There may be cases where it makes sense, but I think by and large we've established... that offshore works very well. And by the way, it's providing quite a lot of our electricity already." 'More nuclear power' expected in energy plan It comes as the The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that Boris Johnson is preparing to announce plans to expand the government's commitment to move forward with new nuclear power stations this decade. A Number 10 spokesperson said: "Next week we will set out an ambitious plan to supercharge our use of a diverse range of renewables including offshore wind, solar and hydrogen - all underpinned by nuclear and continued support for our North Sea oil and gas sector." Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News' Ridge on Sunday programme that the Labour party supports more investment in nuclear energy to help ease the rising cost of household bills. He said: "We do support more nuclear in the system alongside that development of renewables. "I think the danger is that, frankly the individual commissioning decisions on nuclear reactors all depend on the price you can achieve - they can be very expensive if you haven't been able to get the right deal and the right private sector partners to do that." Labour 'support more nuclear' Meanwhile, following Mr Shapps earlier remarks, Conservative MP Alicia Kearns described herself as "probably one of the only people in the country who think onshore wind can be quite beautiful in its own way". Speaking to Sky News, Ms Kearns stressed the need for the UK to "clean up" its energy supply chains, adding: "I will not have bloodstained panels essentially pollute our environment." Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Kwarteng acknowledged that while he would be comfortable living next to a set of wind turbines, that would not overrule any local dissent. "It's not up to me, it doesn't matter what I think," he said. "If there's a plan in a particular community, it's what they think that matters. It's not my aesthetic preference that's going to determine it." Theresa Villiers, a former Tory cabinet minister, and several other MPs put forward ideas for further action during business, energy and industrial strategy questions on Tuesday. Ms Villiers told the House of Commons: "The price cap, the cut in fuel duty and warm homes discount are providing vital help with bills, but will the government commit to further action domestically and internationally to try to get energy prices down to help pensioners and other vulnerable groups?" Business secretary Mr Kwarteng replied: "[She] is absolutely right to identify this as an issue and that's why we're working not only within this government, but across G7 partners to make sure that we get energy supply, diverse sources of supply which can keep prices down." |
Posted at 08/4/2021 10:22 by waldron Why offshore wind partnerships are proving so attractive to oil and gas companiesFeatures & AnalysisPowerWind By Jim Banks 08 Apr 2021 Major oil and gas companies are increasingly looking to invest in offshore wind, a trend hastened by the pandemic and its impact on commodity prices Offshore,Wind,Farm,S Several partnerships between the oil and gas industry and offshore wind developers have emerged in recent years (Credit: Kaisn/Shutterstock) With Covid-19 turning the world’s economy on its head and oil prices taking a downturn, the oil and gas industry is accelerating its efforts to adapt and evolve – with many companies ramping up their efforts to diversify in partnership with the offshore wind sector, seeing an opportunity for both hydrocarbon extraction and turbine emplacement to coexist across a wide range of sites. World Expro writer Jim Banks talks to Søren Lassen, global head of offshore wind at Wood Mackenzie, about the meeting of two very different worlds. The business of extracting oil and gas has, historically, been less vulnerable to market changes than most. In more secure economic times, the industry’s dominance of the energy mix is usually assured; in periods of recession, it is more likely to succumb to a time of gentle hibernation, with larger operators cutting back on platforms and drilling explorations like a gardener might to the branches of an unkempt hedge. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, has pushed oil and gas into an existential crisis. As close to half the world’s population became subject to some form of lockdown, demand for energy across the board plummeted. Gas pipelines were switched off and oil tankers were stranded in foreign ports, unable to offload their cargo. Faced with a massive drop in revenue, energy companies were forced to place countless future exploration and extraction projects on hold, or cancel them outright. One might assume, then, that the eventual demise of the oil and gas industry might come sooner than expected. That seems altogether unlikely, at least if the efforts of some of the larger operators to embrace their counterparts in the renewables sector bear fruit. For several years now, companies like Total, BP and Equinor have been broadening their project portfolio to encompass numerous wind energy projects. Whether oil and gas companies want to invest in this sector as a subsidiary to their main business as a way to use existing rig infrastructure for power generation, or to power the hydrocarbon extraction processes, there is undoubtedly a desire for the two sectors to form closer alliances. “Offshore wind is becoming attractive,” says Søren Lassen, global head of offshore wind research at Wood Mackenzie. “We are seeing a transition across the entire value chain.” It is demand, according to Lassen, that is driving supply. “The growth trajectory for offshore wind is very different to the oil and gas market,” he explains. “In terms of capital expenditure, offshore wind is rapidly growing, whereas in oil and gas it is decreasing.” Although the returns are lower for now, growth in wind is more stable – an attractive prospect for fossil fuel giants beset with visions of their core business collapsing in the next couple of decades. “There is more certainty in the pipeline,” says Lassen. “And that is very attractive to oil and gas players.” oil companies offshore wind Oil and gas companies have a wealth of offshore expertise to bring to the wind industry (Credit: iweta0077/Shuttersto Why offshore wind operators are teaming up with oil and gas companies Why is it so attractive, then, for wind operators to pair up with the likes of BP or Shell? It comes down to location. A combination of factors – from the world’s burgeoning demand for energy to the attitudes of local communities, to the placement of turbines onshore – has pushed offshore wind farms into deeper and deeper waters, where wind speeds are less volatile. Oil and gas majors, for their part, can bring significant expertise and more when it comes to building in such locations. “Capital is a very important part of it, but so too is the fact that the oil and gas industry is larger and has scaled up, so it has local connections in many markets around the world,” explains Lassen. These older beasts of the energy world have lost none of their typical shrewdness in seizing opportunities when they present themselves. Lassen and his colleagues began to spot this in 2018, when the number of alliances between oil and gas majors, and their counterparts in the wind industry, spiked. Seeing that the cost of investment was – at least to them – unusually low, many of these fossil fuel giants went on a spending spree. Spotting a stake in a wind farm was, says Lassen,“a relatively cheap play for an oil and gas company to position itself in a new market”. Lassen singles out Equinor in this regard, which leads among its compatriots in the oil and gas sector when it comes to its investment in wind energy. In early 2020, the Norwegian petroleum ministry approved Equinor’s plan to build a floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea to provide power to five oil and gas platforms. The Hywind Tampen wind farm will be 140km off the coast of Norway and have 11 turbines generating 88MW. The company has been involved in the region since 2017, when it brought five 250m-high Hywind turbines to the offshore site. Shell is another one of the big names aiming to build on its small but expanding presence in the wind industry. In late 2019, it bought the French floating wind company Eolfi. “Eolfi has been a pioneer of floating wind development,” said Dorine Bosman, vice-president for offshore wind at Shell, at the time. “We believe the union of Eolfi’s expertise and portfolio with Shell’s resources and ability to scale-up will help make electricity a significant business for Shell.” Such moves join the expertise, infrastructure and market knowledge of global energy companies to the dynamism of a wind industry fuelled, not only by growing demand and supranational goodwill, but also by a fanatical commitment to making renewable energy work. The impetus and investment provided by oil and gas companies seeking to accelerate their energy transition will no doubt enable the offshore wind sector to forge new international industrial partnerships along the supply chain and further accelerate its growth. By that point, however, investment in turbines could become considerably more expensive. “As the industry becomes more attractive, the market becomes more competitive for tenders,” remarks Lassen. “There is a trend towards joint ventures and partnerships because it is such a global industry now, and is rapidly becoming more so. So, it is challenging for offshore wind players to focus on just one particular market. As such, we are seeing more players forge alliances to tap into synergies and local know-how for key markets. “The offshore wind players are usually large utilities, so they are hard to buy up, hence the alliances and organic growth,” Lassen adds. “Equinor – which has been in the market for a long time – and Shell are very different companies, and they are setting up alliances in very different ways. “We are also seeing a lot of acquisitions on the supply chain side to create larger EPCI [engineering, procurement, construction and installation] players.” Total is also pushing further into the renewables sector, with a stated intention of cultivating 25GW in wind energy capacity by 2025. The company is now a part of the Erebus offshore wind project as well, which will deliver a 100MW floating wind farm off the coast of Wales. Elsewhere, Exxon is working with the Norwegian consultancy DNV GL to look into the use of offshore wind power to enhance the production of oil. The latter is proposing what it calls a ‘WINd-powered Water INjection’ (WIN WIN) project to provide a clean, reliable and cost-effective alternative for powering water injection in offshore locations. Wind-powered water injection could be based on existing technology for off-grid, remotely-controlled operations, using an autonomous system moored in immediate proximity to the injection wells. Partnerships need to be collaborative to prevent conflict The advantages of partnerships between oil majors and offshore wind companies seem clear. Even so, Lassen urges companies on both sides to look beyond them and manage the potential difficulties that can arise when two such dynamic forces meet. “There are some challenges, and we don’t have all of the answers yet,” says Lassen. “We have seen from some players in the supply chain that there is the potential to exaggerate the synergies between offshore wind, oil and gas, and neglect the differences – as offshore wind for the majority of its lifetime has been a niche. “It is, therefore, important to have a balanced view where players are able to leverage the synergies while acknowledging the differences. “They are two different industries, so transitioning from one industry to the other would also require investments,” he adds. “For companies looking to enter the offshore wind industry, it is important not to look at offshore wind as a niche but as a major growth industry, and invest accordingly to be competitive and capture future growth.” One key factor to consider is that innovation has consistently proved to be a powerful force in the offshore wind industry. Partnerships must be able to adapt as systems evolve and projects scale up. “The sector is very dynamic and the technology is changing,” Lassen remarks. “For instance, turbines are getting larger all the time. That has an impact on the whole supply chain. New facilities and new vessels are needed, so oil and gas companies coming into the market need to understand these dynamics when entering the market.” We are seeing two competing industries converge and collaborate, so there will undoubtedly be a clash of culture in some areas. Nevertheless, the potential gains outweigh the pitfalls, so long as both sides share the same vision of the future. This article first appeared in World Expro magazine, Vol. 2 2020. |
Posted at 13/6/2020 20:06 by grupo guitarlumber Mayflower Wind FarmPowerWindOffshore Project Type : Offshore wind farm development Location : Massachusetts, US Initial Capacity : 804MW Planned Capacity : 1.6GW Owner and Operator : Mayflower Wind Energy Development Partners : Shell New Energies (50%) and EDP Renewables (50%) Expected Commissioning : Phase one:2025 The Mayflower wind farm is a 1.6GW offshore wind power project proposed to be developed approximately 32km south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in the New England region of US. Mayflower Wind Energy, a 50:50 joint venture between Shell New Energies and EDP Renewables, is the developer of the project. An 804MW wind farm is planned to be developed in stage one which is expected to commence operation in 2025. The Mayflower offshore wind energy project is expected to generate enough electricity at a cost as low as 5.8 US cents per kilowatt-hours (KWh) for approximately 680,000 households a year. Project Gallery The project is expected to create approximately 10,000 jobs and offset approximately 1.7 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 emissions a year once in operation. Location and site details The Mayflower offshore wind power project is located on a 127,388acre federal lease area on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), approximately 40km south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, US. Mayflower wind project background Mayflower Wind Energy won the rights to develop up to 1.6GW of commercial wind energy on a federal lease area on block 0521 in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coast of Massachusetts, in an auction organised by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in December 2018. Mayflower Wind Energy submitted four bids including proposals for three 804MW wind farms and a 408MW wind farm to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Section 83C offshore wind development procurement process in August 2019, of which the lowest-cost 804MW wind farm proposal was selected in October 2019. A high-resolution geophysical survey campaign in the Mayflower Wind project area was initiated in July 2019 and completed in October 2019. Mayflower 1 wind farm design The turbines of the 804MW Mayflower 1 wind farm will be installed on monopole foundations in rows in water depths ranging from 35m to 65m. The distance between the turbine rows will be approximately one mile. The electricity generated by the turbines will be gathered and transmitted to an offshore substation through approximately 300km of 66kV inter-array cables. The electricity from the offshore substation will be further transmitted to an onshore substation via export cables. Power off-take The electricity output of the wind farm will be off-taken by Massachusetts electric utilities under long-term power-purchase agreements. The electric distribution companies (EDCs) that have applied for long-term contracts with Mayflower Wind Energy include the NSTAR Electric Company, Nantucket Electric Company, Massachusetts Electric Company, and Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company. Contractors involved A joint venture of Semco Maritime and Bladt Industries was contracted for the fabrication and delivery of a 1.2GW offshore substation in January 2020. Bladt Industries will undertake the steel structure and jacket foundation works while Semco Maritime will be responsible for the design, procurement, and installation of electrical equipment, auxiliary systems, and inter-array cables. Siemens was subcontracted by Semco Maritime to provide the main electrical equipment for the electrical service platform (ESP) of the Mayflower wind power project in June 2020. As part of the contract, Siemens will supply three 275 kV/265 MVAr shunt reactors, a 72kV HV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), three 275 kV MV GIS systems, integrated conditioning monitoring system, as well as SCADA and protection systems for the Mayflower offshore substation. Power and telecom cable manufacturer Hellenic Cables was subcontracted by Semco Maritime to design and supply 300km of 66kV, XLPE insulated submarine inter-array cables for the wind farm in January 2020. TerraSond, a subsidiary of the global subsea services group Acteon, was engaged to conduct a high-resolution geophysical survey for the Mayflower wind farm project in 2019. |
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