X1 Wind – Disrupting Offshore Wind
The X1 Wind web site talks about disrupting offshore wind.
On the home page, they have this statement.
Oceans Contain The Largest Energy Resource On The Planet, Which Remains Untapped
They back it up with this reference.
We estimate the total global technical potential of offshore wind as 71 TW (World Bank, 2021), of which 70% is in deep waters, suited to floating wind.
The home page also has a continuous video of their floating wind turbine, which they call a PivotBuoy.
- The wind turbine is mounted on a triangular float.
- The turbine nacelle is supported on a tripod.
- The turbine faces downwind.
- The float is held in place by a single point mooring.
The float and the turbine automatically align with the wind.
This article on offshoreWIND.biz is entitled X1 Wind Installs Downwind Floating Prototype and gives more details of the turbine.
It’s certainly different.
Centrica Re-Opens Rough Storage Facility
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.
It has this sub-heading.
Rough Operational For Winter And Increases UK’s Storage Capacity By 50%.
On the face of it, this sounds like good news and these two paragraphs give more details.
Centrica has announced the reopening of the Rough gas storage facility, having completed significant engineering upgrades over the summer and commissioning over early autumn.
The initial investment programme means the company has made its first injection of gas into the site in over 5 years and is in a position to store up to 30 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas for UK homes and businesses over winter 2022/23, boosting the UK’s energy resilience.
Note.
- The Rough gas storage facility has been able to hold up to 100 billion cubic feet of gas in the past.
- Rough is a complex field with two platforms and thirty wells transferring gas to and from the facility.
- Additionally, there is an onshore gas-processing terminal at the Easington Gas Terminal, where it connects to the UK gas network.
It appears to be a comprehensive gas storage facility, that should get us through the 2022/3 winter.
These two paragraphs from the press release, which are the thoughts of the Centrica Chief Executive are significant.
Centrica Group Chief Executive, Chris O’Shea, said “I’m delighted that we have managed to return Rough to storage operations for this winter following a substantial investment in engineering modifications. Our long-term aim remains to turn the Rough field into the world’s biggest methane and hydrogen storage facility, bolstering the UK’s energy security, delivering a net zero electricity system by 2035, decarbonising the UK’s industrial clusters, such as the Humber region by 2040, and helping the UK economy by returning to being a net exporter of energy.
“In the short term we think Rough can help our energy system by storing natural gas when there is a surplus and producing this gas when the country needs it during cold snaps and peak demand. Rough is not a silver bullet for energy security, but it is a key part of a range of steps which can be taken to help the UK this winter.”
Note.
- Effectively, in the short term, Rough is a store for gas to help us through the winter.
- In the long-term, Rough will be turned into the world’s largest gas storage facility.
- It will be able to store both methane (natural gas) and hydrogen.
Having worked with project managers on complex oil and gas platforms and chemical plants, I wouldn’t be surprised to find, that when the design of this facility is released, it will be something special.
Centrica certainly seem to have upgraded Rough to be able to play a significant short term role this winter and they also seem to have developed a plan to give it a significant long-term role in the storage of hydrogen.
Aldbrough Gas Storage
A few miles up the coast is SSE’s and Equinor’s Aldbrough Gas Storage, which is being developed in salt caverns to hold natural gas and hydrogen.
Blending Of Hydrogen And Natural Gas
I believe that we’ll see a lot of blending of hydrogen and natural gas.
- Up to 20 % of hydrogen can be blended, without the need to change appliances, boilers and processes.
- This cuts carbon dioxide emissions.
I wrote about this in a post called HyDeploy.
It might be convenient to store hydrogen in Aldbrough and natural gas in Rough, so that customers could have the blend of gas they needed.
With two large gas stores for hydrogen under development, the HumberZero cluster is on its way.
National Grid Invites Local Community To Comment On Proposals For Green Electricity Projects Needed To Boost Home-Grown Energy Supplies And Progress Towards Net Zero
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from National Grid.
These are the four main bullet points.
- New interconnector with Netherlands and subsea cable between Suffolk and Kent will strengthen electricity supplies and transport low carbon power to homes and businesses.
- 8-week public consultations will introduce the plans and ask for views of local communities.
- The proposals include possible co-location of infrastructure (buildings and underground cables.) to reduce the impact on local communities.
- Projects form part of the electricity network upgrades identified across the UK to help deliver the government’s energy security strategy and net zero targets.
Note.
- Eurolink is a subsea electricity cable between Great Britain and the Netherlands.
- Sea Link is a subsea electricity cable between Suffolk and Kent.
- The consultations will start on October the 24th.
This paragraph from the press release describes Eurolink.
Developed by National Grid Ventures, the Eurolink multi-purpose interconnector (MPI) is designed to harness the increasing volumes of offshore wind power in the North Sea and has the potential to power approximately 1.8 million homes. It will enable the connection of offshore wind farms to both the British and Dutch electricity grids via an interconnector, enabling the transport of clean electricity from where it’s produced to where it’s needed most.
And this paragraph describes Sea Link.
Developed by National Grid Electricity Transmission, Sea Link will add additional capacity to the electricity network in Suffolk and Kent, enabling low carbon and green energy to power local homes and businesses and be transported around the country. The proposals outline a preferred route of 10km of onshore and 140km of undersea cables, together with potential landfall and converter station locations at the proposed Friston substation in Suffolk and in Richborough in Kent.
These two new interconnectors would appear to open up the delivery of green electricity to the South-East of England and the Continent.
As I’ve said before, there doesn’t be any shortage of money to build wind farms and interconnectors between Great Britain, Belgium and The Netherlands.
How Much Wind Capacity Is Lined Up Around The South-East Of England?
Wind farms listed in the area include.
- Operation – Dudgeon – 402 MW
- Operation – East Anglia One – 714 MW
- Operation – Greater Gabbard – 504 MW
- Operation – Gunfleet Sands – 184 MW
- Operation -Kentish Flats – 140 MW
- Operation – London Array – 630 MW
- Operation – Rampion – 400 MW
- Operation – Scoby Sands – 60 MW
- Operation – Sheringham Shoal – 317 MW
- Operation – Thanet – 300 MW
- Proposed – East Anglia Three – 1372 MW
- Proposed – Norfolk Boreas – 1386 MW
- Exploratory – East Anglia One North – 800 MW
- Exploratory – East Anglia Two – 900 MW
- Exploratory – Rampion 2 Extension – 1200 MW
- Exploratory – Norfolk Vanguard – 1800 MW
- Exploratory – North Falls – 504 MW
- Exploratory – Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon Extensions – 719 MW
Note.
- These wind farms total to 12.3 GW.
- As the UK needs about 23 GW, these wind farms can power about half the UK.
- But no matter, as the East Anglian Array is planned to go to 7.2 GW and only 4.7 GW is so far operational or planned.
- So there could be up to another 2.5 GW to come.
This is not bad news for Rishi Sunak’s first days in office.
There’s More To Come
The National Grid press release finishes with these two paragraphs.
Last year, National Grid Ventures also ran a non-statutory consultation on Nautilus, a proposed MPI linking Britain and Belgium, which proposed a connection at Friston. National Grid Ventures is now investigating the potential to move the Nautilus MPI project to the Isle of Grain in Kent.
Much of the UK’s electricity network was built in the 1960s when the country was more reliant on fossil fuels. Today, we need to connect huge volumes of renewable power, such as offshore wind, to the network, to help deliver the government’s energy security strategy and net zero targets and to transition to a cleaner, more affordable, and more independent energy system. New infrastructure, and network upgrades are necessary to get the new clean energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed.In addition to these proposals in Suffolk and Kent (and the East Anglia GREEN proposals which are currently being consulted on) the need for new network infrastructure has also been identified in North and South Wales, the Scottish Islands and West Coast, the East Coast of Scotland and Aberdeenshire, Lancashire, North-East England, and Yorkshire & Humber.
National Grid have numerous plans to connect up all the renewable energy being developed.
Rishi Sunak To Reimpose Fracking Ban
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Telegraph.
This is the first paragraph.
The new PM made the commitment during his first session of PMQs on Wednesday, reversing Liz Truss’s controversial decision to overturn it.
I think it is the right call.
Here’s why!
Cerulean Winds Massive Decarbonisation Project
Consider.
- At present ten percent of our gas is used to power the oil and gas rigs in the seas around our coasts. The gas is fed into gas-turbines to generate electricity.
- One simple way to increase gas production by this ten percent, would be to decarbonise the rigs by powering them from nearby wind farms with green electricity and green hydrogen as the Norwegians are proposing to do.
- A British company; Cerulean Winds has proposed under the Crown Estate INTOG program to decarbonise a significant part of the oil and gas rigs, by building four 1.5 GW wind farms amongst the rigs.
- The majority of the energy will be sold to the rig owners and any spare electricity and hydrogen will be brought ashore for industrial and domestic users.
- This massive project will be a privately-funded £30 billion project.
- And when the oil and gas is no longer needed, the UK will get another 6 GW of offshore wind.
We need more of this type of engineering boldness.
This page on the Cerulean Winds web site gives more details.
INTOG
This document on the Crown Estate web site outlines INTOG.
Other Projects
Decarbonisation has also attracted the attention of other developers.
I can see Rishi Sunak being offered several projects, that will increase our oil and gas security, by some of the world’s best engineers and most successful oil companies.
Rishi Sunak’s ban on fracking will only increase the rate of project development.
We live in extremely interesting times.
Simply Blue Group And Marine Power Systems To Pursue INTOG Innovation Project Opportunity
The title of this post, is the same as this of this press release from Simply Blue Group.
These two paragraphs explain the proposals.
Marine Power Systems (MPS) have partnered with Simply Blue Group to develop a project proposal for the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round run by Crown Estate Scotland.
The collaboration between Simply Blue Group and MPS would see six wind turbines deployed on the MPS floating platform, PelaFlex, in waters between 60 and 100m in depth, delivering a total capacity of 100MW.
The INTOG proposal, that I outlined in What Is INTOG?, seems to have got engineers and financiers thinking.
Simply Blue Group are quoted saying this about the PelaFlex platform.
MPS has been selected as the preferred technology partner based on the strengths of their structurally efficient tension legged platform which delivers significantly reduced system mass and a smaller mooring footprint than its peers. The technology has been designed to optimise local content delivery through a decentralised logistics model, and those benefits help utility scale developers minimise costs whilst maximising local economic benefits and accelerating industrial scale farm development.
That sounds good to me!
There is also more on the PelaFlex web page including a video.
The Turbine Size
The press release talks of six turbines totalling up to 100 MW, which is probably around 17 MW per wind turbine.
These are no ordinary wind turbines!
About INTOG
The press release also says this about INTOG.
The INTOG leasing round aims to support projects that will directly reduce emissions from oil and gas production (up to a total capacity of 5.7GW) but also drive commercialisation and innovation in offshore wind (up to a total capacity of 500MW) as well as support supply chain development. This forms part of the Scottish Government’s drive to reach net zero emissions by 2045 where the decarbonisation of oil and gas installations is seen as playing an important role in the transition to net zero.
Decarbonisation of our oil and gas fields, will obviously be a good thing because of a reduction of the carbon dioxide emitted. but it will also mean that the gas that would have been used to power the platform can be brought ashore to power industry and domestic heating, or be exported to countries who need it.
Conclusion
INTOG seems to be a good idea, as it is provoking new and innovative designs.
Norwegians Developing Monopile Foundation For 100-Metre Depths
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
Monopile foundations are a common fixed foundation for offshore wind farms.
The article starts with this paragraph.
Norway’s Entrion Wind and Techano AS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through which Techano AS will join the ongoing development and test project planned to take place in Kristiansand, Norway for the patent-pending fully restrained platform (FRP) offshore wind foundation technology said to extend the operating depth of the monopile technology to up to 100 metres.
It does seem that the Norwegians are intending to take this type of foundation to new heights. Or is it new depths?
A picture in the article shows a tall monopole held in position by three wires securely anchored in the sea-bed. It reminds me slightly of the sort of flag-poles, that we used to build in Scout camps in the 1960s, using Scout staves, ropes and tent pegs.
But seriously in the 1970s, I did the calculations for a company called Balaena Structures, who were trying to develop a reusable oil and gas platform.
- The company had been started by two Engineering professors from Cambridge University.
- The platforms were formed of a long steel cylinder, which would have been built horizontally in the sort of ship-yards, that were used to build supertankers.
- They were to be floated out horizontally and then turned upright.
- Weight and the gumboot principle would have kept them, in place.
The design also included a square platform on the top end. Originally, they were planning to put the platform on top after erection, but I showed that, it would be possible to erect cylinder and platform, by just allowing water to enter the cylinder.
The project had a somewhat unfulfilling end, in that they never sold the idea to an operator and the company closed.
But I still believe something similar has a future in the offshore energy industry.
It could be a foundation for a wind turbine or possibly as I indicated in The Balaena Lives, it could be used to clear up oil field accidents like Deepwater Horizon.
Could This Be A Design For A Hundred Metre Plus Monopole Foundation?
Construction and installation would be as follows.
- A long cylinder is built in a ship-yard, where supertankers are built.
- One end, which will be the sea-bed end after installation, is closed and has a skirt a couple of metres tall.
- The other end is profiled to take the transition piece that is used as a mount for the wind turbine.
- A float would be added to the top end for tow-out. This will help the cylinder to float and erect.
- Water would be added into the cylinder and, if the dimensions are correct, it will turn through ninety degrees and float vertically.
- It would be towed to a dock, where a large crane on the dock would remove the float and install the turbine.
- The turbine and its foundation would then be towed into place and by adding more water lowered to the sea-bed.
- The float would be reused for the next turbine.
Note.
- The float is needed to nudge the cylinder to turn vertically.
- If the Cambridge professors were right, the skirt and the weight of water would hold it in place.
- Traditional moorings could be added if required.
- No heavy lifts are performed at sea.
- The concept would surely work for a floating turbine as well.
But then what do I know?
I was just a twenty-five year old engineer, mathematician and computer programmer, who did a few calculations and a dynamic simulation fifty years ago.
Floating Wind Farms At Sea To Create 29,000 Jobs – Crown Estate
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These three paragraphs introduce the article.
Plans to generate electricity through floating wind farms off the south Wales coast could create thousands of new jobs, according to the Crown Estate.
The property business owned by the monarch but run independently said the new industry could create about 29,000 jobs, including 10,000 in Wales.
It is leasing the space to generate enough power for four million homes.
Will Wales be the world’s next offshore wind powerhouse?
Wind power experts have said there is a potential for 50 GW of offshore wind power in the Celtic Sea and the BBC article talks of an investment of £43.6 billion by 2050.
The process has started, but will the engineers be able to tame the dragons?
RWE Looking for Innovators To Boost UK’s Offshore Wind Supply Chain
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
RWE appear to be looking for innovators in three areas.
- Autonomous solutions and the best way to integrate them into wind farm site investigations, construction, and operations and maintenance (O&M) is the first challenge for which RWE is looking for responses.
- The second challenge is about solutions to measure and reduce the environmental impacts of offshore wind farm construction and operations on birds.
- The last challenge focuses on ideas and innovations in cable monitoring and protection, aiming to secure a reduction in offshore wind farm cable failures.
As sums of around £25,000 are talked about in the article, it could be worth applying, if you have a relevant idea.
Is it slightly flattering to the UK’s skills, that a German company is backing British innovation?
But then I was involved in a British invention, which was also backed by the Germans and made me a reasonable amount of money.
National Grid’s North Sea Link Strengthens Electricity Supply And Repays Its Carbon Cost In Just Six Months
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from National Grid.
These are three bullet points from the press release.
- World’s longest subsea electricity cable has been in operation since Oct 2021.
- 5.7 terawatt (TWh) hours of clean power have been shared between GB and Norway, strengthening security of supply for consumers in both countries.
- It has saved 800,000 tonnes of carbon in the first year, paying off its carbon cost after only six months of operation.
This must surely be considered a good start.
These two paragraphs describe the operation in the first year.
During its first year of operation, the link has imported 4.6 TWh of clean electricity – enough to power 1.5 million British homes for a year.
North Sea Link has also exported 1.1 TWh to Norway, demonstrating the vital role that interconnectors play in strengthening energy security and maximising the benefits of clean energy sources for consumers across the UK and Europe.
In The Monster In The Mountains That Could Save Europe’s Winter, I describe what makes the North Sea Link so important.
It gives the UK access to the Norwegian Bank Of Electricity or Ulla-Førre, which is a complex of five hydroelectric power stations and a massive lake in the Norwegian mountains to the East of Stavanger.
- The power stations have a total generating capacity of 2.1 GW.
- Lake Blåsjø is able to hold enough water to generate 7800 GWh of electricity.
- Ulla-Førre can also supply electricity to Germany, through the 1.4 GW NordLink.
If Ulla-Førre has a problem, it is that if Norwegian weather is dry, the filling of Lake Blåsjø could be difficult, which is where the interconnector comes into its own, as excess UK wind power or the 1,185 MW Hartlepool nuclear power station, can be used to send electricity to Norway for storage.
In An Update To Will We Run Out Of Power This Winter?, I predicted we will add the following capacity to our renewable generation in the next three years.
- 2023 – 2925 MW
- 3024 – 3726 MW
- 2025 – 6476 MW
This is a total of 13,127 MW.
As a Control Engineer, I can see the following happening.
- Several of the UK’s gas-fired power stations will be mothballed.
- Some of the UK’s gas-fired power stations will be fitted with advanced control systems so they can supply more precise amounts of electricity.
- Some UK electricity is stored in Ulla-Førre for onward sale to Germany.
- Some UK electricity is stored in Ulla-Førre for withdrawal back to the UK, when needed.
One of Ulla-Førre’s main tasks could be to ensure that no UK electricity is wasted.
Conclusion
With all these wind generated electricity and electricity transfers, the Crown Estate, National Grid and the Treasury should be coining it.
The Germans are already building the 1.4 GW NeuConnect between the Isle of Grain and Wilhelmshaven to import more electricity.
But I do believe that another interconnector will be needed.
National Grid Installs LineVision Sensors To Expand The Capacity Of Existing Power Lines
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from National Grid.
These are four bullet points from the press release.
- LineVision’s Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) technology trialled for first time in Great Britain following successful deployment on National Grid’s electricity networks in the US.
- The sensors and data analytics platform will highlight spare capacity on overhead power lines allowing for the integration of more renewable power.
- Technology has the potential to unlock 0.6GW of additional capacity, enough to power more than 500,000 homes and save £1.4 million in network operating costs per year based on the results from the US networks.
- Combined with the construction of new infrastructure, the innovative technology forms part of National Grid’s work to upgrade and adapt the electricity network to meet increased demand and help deliver a net zero grid.
In some ways this seems like the sort of story, that could be filed under Too-Good-To-Be-True.
But as a Graduate Control Engineer, I’m willing to give National Grid and LineVision the benefit of the doubt.
- It appears to be technology proven in the United States.
- That experience should feed over, once the manuals are translated into the dual English-American form of English.
- I suspect that applying this technology to interconnectors could increase their capacity.
- I also think that as we add more storage, power sources or interconnectors to our electricity network, this will open up more savings.
- As the UK power network gets more complicated, the system should come into its own.
This is an excellent decision by National Grid.
The Anonymous Widower 