The Anonymous Widower

Floating Solar Not Yet Up to Par To Be Brought Into Offshore Wind Tenders, Says BP’s Benelux Head Of Offshore Wind

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.

This is the sub-heading.

System integration is what is needed for the next leap in offshore wind, however, not all technologies that can integrate with offshore wind farms have the same starting point. Floating solar still has some way to go in becoming more resilient to harsh offshore conditions. On the other hand, hydrogen is a more ready option with plenty of support from the industry, but it needs to be included and clearly defined in offshore wind tenders.

These two paragraphs describe the views of Frank Oomen, Head of Offshore Wind Benelux at BP.

This is according to Frank Oomen, Head of Offshore Wind Benelux at BP, who discussed financial and qualitative criteria in offshore wind auctions during the Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference 2023 (OEEC 2023).

Speaking about recently joining BP from the renewables industry, Oomen pointed out that, with offshore wind becoming larger scale, it needs to move in the direction of system integration and become an integrated energy business itself.

I had a lot of my engineering education, in ICI’s world of integrated chemical plants and I believe that Frank Oomen’s views are heading in the right direction.

If we take Frank Oomen’s views to their logical conclusion, we will see the following.

• Clusters of wind farms far from land in productive wind power areas.
• A nearby electrolyser will be producing hydrogen.
• The hydrogen will be taken to the shore by pipeline or tanker.
• BP with their oil and gas heritage, have been doing this for decades.

BP might even have some redundant gas infrastructure they can repurpose.

December 14, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Hydrogen | BP, Floating Solar Power, ICI, Offshore Hydrogen Production, Offshore Solar Power, Offshore Wind Power, Wind Power