An initiative led by the East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) is investigating how to cut offshore wind costs even more by looking at how offshore services can be shared with the oil & gas sector, including supply vessels and helicopters, like in Dutch waters.
Rob Hastings , who is leading the SNS Rejuvenation Special Interest Group examining how Oil & Gas and Offshore Wind could work together more closely, said: “If we can make cost reduction from 10-20% from both sides of these industries, we have created a massive win.”
In multi-operator contracts in Dutch waters, a vessel going to a gas installation with spare capacity asked other operators if they wanted to share. “We could do it here but it needs a commercial framework. It could happen with helicopters too,” Hastings said.
The group was also looking at construction, installation and maintenance.
“There’s not much difference between a wind turbine and a NUI (Normally Unattended Installation). They are about the same weight and size, they need the same skills for putting them together and maintaining them. We can use our 40-odd year history of oil & gas and incorporate in design of the bigger wind turbines. Our focus will be about common design standards and common skills and encourage that be shared across the two sectors,” Hastings explained.
The group would also investigate gas to wire , according to Rob Hastings. “Why not convert gas to power at the source of production rather than sending it miles around and use the exporter of the power from the offshore wind farm to the shore and connect to the very expensive offshore transmission?”
Multi-billion pounds of projects off the East of England are playing a leading role in the drive to power 20% of the UK’s energy with offshore wind by 2020 with an ultimate target of 50%, EEEGR said.
Waveney MP Peter Aldous praised the industry for driving down costs dramatically and achieving a strike price of £57.50 in this year’s subsidy auction, Contracts for Difference, almost halving the prices since the 2015 auction. “But the offshore wind industry cannot rest on its laurels or other low-carbons technologies will overtake it. It needs to work even harder and keep innovating to make cost to the consumer lower.”
Chris Anderson of 4C Offshore said the demand for offshore wind farms would continue to grow fast, especially with the rise of electric vehicle s, with more than 40 countries with ambitions to develop offshore wind. “We have 6GW under construction outside the UK and a further 3.2GW being planned with 90 GW in the pipeline.” Anderson added that there were some “really exciting projects coming forward” in 2019 in the most competitive Contracts for Difference auction yet.
This was all discussed during EEEGR’s Offshore Wind Week event at at OrbisEnergy in Lowestoft.