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Innovating a novel decarbonisation plan, the French integrated energy and petroleum business TotalEnergies has started a floating wind turbine pilot project to provide renewable electricity to the Culzean offshore platform in the UK North Sea.
Situated 2 km west of the Culzean platform, 220 miles off the eastern coast of Scotland, will be the location of the 3 MW floating wind turbine. By the end of 2025, this turbine should be completely operational, providing around 20% of Culzean's electricity needs.
The pilot project was chosen for the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing cycle by Crown Estate Scotland, which promotes and facilitates the use of offshore wind energy to supply offshore platforms for oil and gas.
"This innovative pilot project aims to prove the concept of hybridisation of power generation on an offshore facility, by integrating the generation of renewable electricity from a floating wind turbine with the existing power generation from gas turbines," stated Marie-Noelle Semeria, chief technology officer at TotalEnergies. Additionally, it seeks to validate a viable floater design for floating offshore wind in the future.
By providing renewable electricity directly to oil and gas infrastructure (TOG), the INTOG process enables developers to apply for seabed rights to build offshore wind projects that either reduce emissions from the North Sea oil and gas sector or are small-scale (IN) innovative projects with a capacity of no more than 100 MW.
Up to 449 MW of IN capacity and up to 5 GW of TOG capacity are proposed for the projects. For IN projects, Crown Estate Scotland will provide a 25-year seabed lease; for TOG developments, the lease will be for 50 years.
Check the press release here- https://totalenergies.com/news/press-releases/united-kingdom-totalenergies-launches-floating-offshore-wind-pilot-project
