JERA Nex BP, EnBW Submit Morven Offshore Wind Farm Application
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
A joint venture between JERA Nex BP and EnBW has submitted Section 36 consent applications for the Morven offshore wind farm to the Scottish government
These two paragraphs add a few details.
The developer secured the seabed rights for the Morven offshore wind farm as a single project in the ScotWind Leasing Round in 2022 and split it into two separate projects during the early development phase.
Located around 60 kilometres off the coast of Aberdeenshire at its closest point, the site is planned to house Morven North and Morven South, which would have a combined installed capacity of up to 3 GW and around 190 wind turbines in total.
Morven Offshore Wind Farm now has a comprehensive web site.
The web site says that the electricity will be brought ashore at Hawthorn Pit.
This Google Map shows the location of Hawthorn Pit.
Note.
- Hawthorn Pit is indicated by the red arrow.
- Sunderland is at the top of the map on the coast.
- Aura Power has already obtained planning permission for Hawthorn Pit solar farm, which will be up to 49.9 MW.
- Zenobe are developing a battery-energy-storage-system(BESS) 1.5 km to the South-East of the new Hawthorn Pit substation, which will have an output of 300 MW. Sloppily, there is no detail on capacity, but Google AI indicates, it is a 300 MW/600 MWh battery.
- Hawthorn Pit substation is also the expected to be the Southern end of Eastern Green Link 1, which will help to bring Scottish wind power to England, which will be a 2 GW undersea interconnector to Torness.
In Murphy Starts Work On £2.5bn Eastern Green Link 1, I detail the start of building of Eastern Green Link 1 and say it should be operational by 2029.
When Is The Morven Offshore Wind Farm Expected To Be Commissioned?
I asked Google AI the question above and received this answer.
The 2.9 GW Morven offshore wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned and operational between 2031 and 2035, with initial grid connections and power export potentially starting as early as 2030.
The timeline for full deployment of the Morven Offshore Wind Farm remains somewhat flexible as it depends on final planning approvals and connection offers from the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
The Cables For The Morven Offshore Wind Farm And Eastern Green Link 1
This map clipped from the Morven Offshore Wind Farm web site, shows the locations of Aberdeen, Hawthorn Pit and the Morven Offshore Wind Farm.
Note.
- The location of the Morven wind array was first mentioned in June 2020, as part of ScotWind by Crown Estate Scotland.
- The development of Eastern Green Link 1 was first mentioned in May 2021, by National Grid.
- Torness is to the East of Edinburgh.
- Eastern Green Link 1 connects Torness and Hawthorn Pit.
- the Morven wind array connects to England at Hawthorn Pit.
Over the last few years National Grid and other companies have been developing a technique called offshore hybrid assets, which I describe in What Are Offshore Hybrid Assets?.
An offshore hybrid asset typically connects two countries via a large offshore wind farm, which can then send electricity to both countries.
In a traditional design, there would need to be.
- A 2 GW cable between Torness and Hawthorn Pit.
- A 2.9 GW cable between Morven and Hawthorn Pit.
In the Offshore Hybrid Asset design, there would need to be.
- A 2 GW cable between Torness and Morven
- A 2.9 GW cable between Morven and Hawthorn Pit.
I suspect cable would be saved.
This map shows the position of each ScotWind Leasing wind farm.
Note.
- The numbers are Scotwind’s lease number in their documents.
- Morven is ScotWind lease number 1.
- Eastern Green Link 1 is one of four interconnectors down the East Coast of the UK.
- I have added up the ScotWind lease numbers 1-6 and they total 10.5 GW.
That would be a lot of power to capture just by converting the four Eastern Green Link interconnectors into offshore hybrid assets.
How Will Aquaventus Connect To Aberdeen?
This is RWE’s description of AquaVentus, which is sub-titled Hydrogen Production In The North Sea.
Hydrogen is considered the great hope of decarbonisation in all sectors that cannot be electrified, e.g. industrial manufacturing, aviation and shipping. Massive investments in the expansion of renewable energy are needed to enable carbon-neutral hydrogen production. After all, wind, solar and hydroelectric power form the basis of climate-friendly hydrogen.
In its quest for climate-friendly hydrogen production, the AquaVentus initiative has set its sights on one renewable energy generation technology: offshore wind. The initiative aims to use electricity from offshore wind farms to operate electrolysers also installed at sea on an industrial scale. Plans envisage setting up electrolysis units in the North Sea with a total capacity of 10 gigawatts, enough to produce 1 million metric tons of green hydrogen.
RWE have also put this AquaVentus video on their web site.
Note, that in the video AquaVentus connects Germany to Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands and Aberdeen and Humberside in the UK.
I asked Google AI, the question in the title of this section, and received this answer.
AquaVentus connects to Aberdeen through a strategic infrastructure partnership with Hydrogen Scotland. The two organizations are integrating offshore wind power, offshore electrolysis, and a shared cross-border pipeline to link Scottish renewable generation with European industrial markets.
The connection strategy relies on a multi-stage approach across the North Sea:
Offshore Production & Transmission: AquaVentus aims to produce green hydrogen directly offshore. It will be transported via a pan-European pipeline network—such as the planned 400 km AquaDuctus to link offshore hubs with both the UK and mainland Europe.
Scottish-German Export Corridor: Building on previous research like the Scot2Ger study, this pipeline corridor directly connects Scotland’s abundant offshore wind resources to European demand, establishing Aberdeen as a critical origin node.
Integrated Energy Backbone: The initiative champions hybrid connection concepts (combining both power cables and hydrogen pipelines). This allows for maximum flexibility when integrating Aberdeen’s local onshore hydrogen infrastructure with broader transnational energy grids.
I will now ask Google AI some supplementary questions about AquaVentus in UK waters.
“Will AquaVentus Produce Hydrogen In UK Waters?”
Google AI gave this reply.
Yes, AquaVentus plans to produce green hydrogen in UK waters. The German-led consortium has partnered with Hydrogen Scotland to harness Scotland’s offshore wind potential for large-scale, cross-border hydrogen production and export.
Key Details of the UK-German Initiative
Production Scale: The initiative aims to install 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore electrolysis capacity in the North Sea by 2035, producing up to 1 million metric tonnes of green hydrogen annually.
The “Pipes and Wires” Model: Offshore wind parks will be equipped with hybrid connection concepts, providing the flexibility to either send electricity directly to the grid or convert it into hydrogen via offshore electrolysers.
Transportation: The produced hydrogen will be transported to land via a shared transnational subsea pipeline corridor, linking Scottish resources to Germany and mainland Europe.The partnership is specifically aimed at creating a North Sea hydrogen corridor to boost energy security and build the foundational European Hydrogen Backbone.
“Will AquaVentus Land Hydrogen In Scotland?”
Google AI gave this reply.
Yes, the German-led AquaVentus initiative plans to land green hydrogen in Scotland as part of a coordinated North Sea energy corridor.
The cross-border initiative involves the following components:
The Pipeline Connection: A key part of the plan is the AquaDuctus offshore subsea pipeline, designed to collect green hydrogen produced from central North Sea wind farms and land it on the coast.
Scottish Partnership: Hydrogen Scotland and AquaVentus have formalized a Memorandum of Understanding to combine Scotland’s massive offshore wind potential with German infrastructure and electrolysis expertise.
Export Ambitions: Scotland aims to produce up to 3.3 Mt of green hydrogen per year by 2045, heavily relying on pipelines and networks to export this to mainland European hubs like Germany.
Offshore Facilities: The broader initiative plans to install 10 GW of offshore electrolysis capacity in the North Sea to produce up to 1 million tonnes of hydrogen annually.
Note that Google AI has told me that a Megatonne of hydrogen is currently worth around £2.5-5 billion.
“Will AquaVentus Connect To Any Of The ScotWind Leasing Wind Farms?”
Google AI gave this reply.
Yes, AquaVentus plans to link Scottish offshore wind resources (including ScotWind farms) to mainland Europe. Through an agreement with Hydrogen Scotland, AquaVentus intends to utilize hybrid “pipes and wires” infrastructure to transmit power or convert it into green hydrogen for direct pipeline transport.
The partnership serves several strategic goals:
The “Pipes & Wires” Concept: Wind farms built under the ScotWind leasing round will have the flexibility to either route electricity to the UK grid or convert it into green hydrogen via offshore electrolysers.
Cross-Border Pipelines: The hydrogen generated by Scottish offshore wind is targeted to be fed into the planned AquaDuctus pipeline, which forms a transnational energy corridor connecting the UK to Germany and the rest of Europe.
Policy Integration: AquaVentus is actively advocating for legal reforms to accommodate these cross-border hybrid connections, allowing direct pipeline integration for future offshore parks.
I believe these ScotWind Leasing wind farms could be connected to AquaVentus.
- 1 – Morven – 2.9 GW – JERA Nex BP, EnBW
- 2 – Ossian – 2.6 GW – SSE Renewables
- 3 – Bellrock – 1.2 GW – Falck Renewables
- 4 – CampionWind – 2 GW – Scottish Power, Shell
- 5 – Muir Mhòr – 0.8 GW – Vattenfall
- 6 – Bowdun – – 1 GW – Thistle Wind Partners
Note.
- All companies are major energy companies.
- The wind farms are in a cluster to the South-East of Scotland.
- Wind farms 2-5 are floating, and 1 and 6 are fixed.
- There is a maximum power of 10.5 GW.
- These wind farms would not need to be shut down, when there was too much wind, if the excess electricity could be converted into hydrogen.
- The “Pipes & Wires” Concept would allow all energy generated to be transferred to shore, either as electricity or hydrogen.
Cables would need to be laid to perform the functions of the Eastern Green Links 1-4.
- Eastern Green Link 1 – Torness and Hawthorn Pit
- Eastern Green Link 2 – Peterhead and Drax
- Eastern Green Link 3 – Westfield and Lincolnshire
- Eastern Green Link 4 – Peterhead and Lincolnshire
Eastern Green Link 5 is under development between Aberdeenshire and Lincolnshire.
“Is Anderby Creek An Important Node In The Electricity Grid?”
Google AI gave this reply.
Yes, Anderby Creek has become a highly important landfall location for the UK’s electricity grid, acting as a crucial connection point for high-capacity subsea cables bringing renewable energy from Scotland and offshore wind farms into England.
Its role in the national grid’s infrastructure centers on several major “superhighway” projects:
Eastern Green Link 5 (EGL 5): This £3bn National Grid project involves a 585km subsea High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable carrying up to 2 GW of clean power (enough for two million homes) from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to Anderby Creek.
Eastern Green Links 3 & 4 (EGL 3 / EGL 4): These are additional massive subsea cable projects that also plan to make landfall at Anderby Creek to transport Scottish wind energy down the UK coastline.
Offshore Wind Export Cables: Beyond long-distance transmission, the village already hosts export cables from local offshore wind developments like the Triton Knoll Wind Farm.
Because of the massive volume of power coming ashore, Anderby Creek serves as the starting point for significant onshore infrastructure. The cables transition underground at the beach and run roughly 8km inland to a proposed new converter station near Bilsby/Alford, where the power is converted and integrated into the broader Great Grid Upgrade.
“Will AquaVentus Have Access To The UK’s hydrogen Storage On Humberside?”
Google AI gave this reply.
Yes. Through a strategic partnership with Hydrogen Scotland, the AquaVentus initiative aims to establish cross-border offshore infrastructure that connects the central North Sea with existing and planned hydrogen networks across the UK, including those on Humberside.
The pipeline infrastructure associated with AquaVentus is envisioned to reach the UK just south of the massive hydrogen storage facilities located in East Yorkshire. While the German offshore pipeline (like AquaDuctus) is focused on landing green hydrogen into Germany, the broader AquaVentus framework is designed to integrate with British transmission networks and link to underground cavern storage in the UK.
On Humberside, major energy giants (including Centrica, Equinor, and SSE Thermal) are developing the integrated Humber Hydrogen transport and storage network. This system encompasses large-scale hydrogen storage at the Aldbrough Hydrogen Storage site and Rough Gas Storage. Because the AquaVentus UK branch connects to the Humber area’s onshore network, it positions the initiative to take advantage of these regional storage assets as a cornerstone for international trade and domestic energy resilience.
I think this is key as it gives AquaVentus access to very large hydrogen storage.
Conclusion
It almost looks to me, that National Grid and AquaVentus are combining their pipes and wires between the Southern North Sea and Aberdeen.
- Hydrogen offtake for Germany will be at Wilhelmshaven.
- Hydrogen offtake for England will be at Humberside.
- Hydrogen offtake for Scotland will be at Aberdeen.
- Electricity offtake for Germany will be at Wilhelmshaven.
- Electricity offtake for England will be at Anderby Creek.
- Electricity offtake for England will be at Hawthorn Pit.
- Electricity offtake for Scotland will be at Torness.
- Electricity offtake for Scotland will be at Aberdeen.
Note.
- There will probably be other connections to onshore locations and offshore wind farms.
- Hydrogen imports will be possible from Denmark, Norway and The Netherlands direct into AquaVentus.
BP’s Morven Wind Farm At Risk Of Missing Start Date
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
A lengthening queue for grid connection could scupper plans to provide energy for three million homes from a development in the North Sea by the end of the decade
These two paragraphs introduce the article.
One of the largest wind farms in the UK risks missing its 2030 target to start generating power, due to lengthy grid connection queues and supply chain shortages.
The Morven Wind Farm being developed by BP, which is to be located 38 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, will have capacity of 2.9 gigawatts, which is expected to be capable of powering three million homes in Britain.
The delays in getting a grid connection and obtaining various electrical parts could derail BP’s plans.
The Morven wind farm is one of three being developed by a partnership of BP and a German company, which is outlined in this paragraph.
Morven is one of three UK wind farms being built by BP in a joint venture with Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW), the German energy company. The other two, Mona and Morgan, are being developed in the Irish Sea and have already secured grid connections.
These are my thoughts on the problems with the Morven Wind Farm.
Everybody is assuming that there will be a large cable to bring the 2.9 GW of electricity to the Scottish coast somewhere near Aberdeen.
Cables can be a problem as the article indicates, with connection to the grid and the erection of large numbers of pylons being major ones.
But the energy from Morven doesn’t necessarily need to go to Scotland.
It can be converted into hydrogen using an offshore electrolyser and sent to where it is needed by pipeline or a tanker ship.
I have also noted that BP’s partners are German and Germany has a massive need for zero-carbon energy to replace the large amount of coal they burn.
The Germans are building a massive pipeline called AquaVentus, from their North-West coast to the Dogger Bank, to collect hydrogen created by up to 10 GW of offshore wind farms in the German Ocean or their part of the North Sea to the shore.
I introduced AquaVentus in this post called AquaVentus.
This video shows the structure of AquaVentus.
I clipped this map from the video.
Note.
- The thick white line running North-West/South-East is the spine of AquaVentus, that will deliver hydrogen to Germany.
- There is a link to Esbjerg in Denmark, that is marked DK.
- There appears to be an undeveloped link to Norway, which goes North,
- There appears to be an undeveloped link to Peterhead in Scotland, that is marked UK.
- There appears to be a link to just North of the Humber in England, that is marked UK.
- Just North of the Humber are the two massive gas storage sites of Aldbrough owned by SSE and Brough owned by Centrica.
- Aldbrough and Rough gas storage sites are being converted into two of the largest hydrogen storage sites in the world!
- There appear to be small ships sailing up and down the East Coast of the UK. Are these small coastal tankers, that are distributing the hydrogen to where it is needed?
When it is completed, AquaVentus will be a very comprehensive hydrogen network.
- Pipelines from Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands and the UK will feed directly into AquaVentus.
- Will enBW and BP build a giant offshore electrolyser at Morven and send the hydrogen to Germany via the spine of AquaVentus?
- Will AquaVentus use the vast hydrogen storage North of Hull to store excess hydrogen?
- Will connections be built between AquaVentus and the UK’s Northern gas terminals at St Fergus and Easington?
If AquaVentus works as intended, Germany’s Russian gas will be replaced by zero-carbon hydrogen, a large proportion of which will come from the UK’s waters.
Where Will We Get Our Electricity From?
If the energy from Morven is sold to the Germans as hydrogen, where will we get the energy we need?
Morven is just one of several large wind farms and being developed around the North of Scotland and we’ll probably use the energy from another wind farm.
- Wind farms that can best send their energy to the grid, will do so.
- Wind farms that can best send their energy to one or more of the large Scottish pumped storage hydro-electric power-stations, will do so.
- Wind farms that can best send their energy to Germany as hydrogen, will do so.
- Wind farms that can best send their energy to Scotland or another country as hydrogen, will do so.
The hydrogen will get distributed to those who need it and can pay the appropriate price.
Where Will The Turbines And the Electrical Gubbins Come From?
I’m sure that if Morven was sending a couple of GW of hydrogen to Germany, Siemens could build the turbines and the associated electrical gubbins needed at a favourable price, with an acceptable delivery date.
Conclusion
Germany will likely be pleased, in that they will be able to close a lot of very dirty coal-fired power stations, by replacing coal with green hydrogen.
The UK should be pleased, as the Germans will pay us for the hydrogen.
As for Putin, who knows, what the mad Russian will do?
BP And EnBW Hire Kent For 2.9 GW Scottish Offshore Wind Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Engineering and design service provider Kent has been awarded a contract by EnBW and BP to carry out pre-Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies for the 2.9 GW Morven offshore wind project in Scotland.
Morven offshore wind farm would appear to be on its way.
According to Wikipedia’s list of UK offshore wind farms, the water depth in the Morven wind farm is between 65-75 metres.
- Total power is given as 2907 MW, which indicates that 14 MW turbines could be used.
- Siemens Gamesa 14 MW turbines have a blade length of 108 metres and their 10 MW have a blade length of 94 metres.
- This would seem to indicate that the wind turbine will be as much as 160 to 185 metres above the sea-bed.
A radical design of fixed foundation will be needed.
In Entrion Wind Wins ScotWind Feasibility Deal For Its 100-Metre Depth Foundation Tech, I look at technology that might work.
I also say this about work I did in Cambridge in the early 1970s.
The structures, I mathematically-modelled were for a company called Balaena Structures, that had been started by two Cambridge University engineering professors. The structures were about a hundred metres high and perhaps thirty metres in diameter.
They would have been built horizontally in the sort of dock, where you would build a supertanker and would have been floated into position horizontally. Water would then be let in to the cylinder and they would turn to the vertical. From that position, they would be lowered to the sea-bed by adjusting the water in the cylinder. They had a method of holding the Balaena to the seabed, which relied mainly on the weight of the structure and what they called the gum-boot principle.
Sadly, they never sold any platforms and the company folded.
Until recently, you could find the expired patents on the Internet.
I believe that a development of the Balaena design could be the solution to deep water fixed foundations.
Morecambe Offshore Windfarm
I found this article on beyondradio, which is entitled Plans Unveiled To Build New Offshore Windfarms Off Morecambe Bay.
These care the first two paragraphs.
Plans are being developed to build new offshore windfarms off the Morecambe Bay coast.
Proposals have been unveiled for ‘Morecambe’ and ‘Morgan’, two new offshore wind farms being developed in the Irish Sea.
I’ve discussed Morgan and its sister; Mona before in Mona, Morgan And Morven, which describes the three projects BP are developing in a joint venture with enBW.
I haven’t come across the Morecambe Offshore Windfarm before and it has its own web site.
It has this summary of the wind farm.
Renewable energy is central to supporting the UK’s ambitions to lead the world in combatting climate change, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and embracing a future where renewable energy powers our homes and businesses.
Morecambe Offshore Windfarm which has a nominal capacity of 480MW. That’s enough to power over half a million households. It will also contribute to the UK Government’s commitment to:
- Generate 50GW of power from offshore wind by 2030
- Reach net zero by 2050.
It is located approximately 30km from the Lancashire coast.
This EnBW-BP infographic describes the Morgan and Mona projects.
it appears that the proposed Morecambe Offshore Windfarm will fit in the notch on the Eastern side of EnBW-BP’s two wind farms; Mona and Morgan.
- All three wind farms are fixed foundation wind farms.
- They have a total output of just under 3.5 GW.
- Could they share infrastructure like cables and substations?
- Heysham 1 is a 485 MW nuclear station, that will be decommissioned in 2024.
- Heysham 2 is a 1815 MW nuclear station, that will be decommissioned in 2028.
- What’s left of the two Heysham nuclear stations can probably generate 2.3 GW
Could it be that over 2.3 GW of wind power is being planned in the Irish Sea to make up for the loss of the four reactors at Heysham?
Could also the 480 MW Morecambe Bay wind farm be replacing what’s left of Heysham 1?
There would probably need to be a battery at Heysham, but it looks like the wind farms could be replacing the Heysham nuclear power station!
There will be consultation with the locals about the Morecambe ans Morgan wind farms, which will take place on Saturday, November 19, 2.30pm – 6.30pm, at Morecambe War Memorial Hall on Church Street.
I think, I might go!
BP To Charge Up Vehicle Battery Research
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the title on a stock picture at the top of the page.
BP, whose profits benefited from soaring oil and gas prices, plans to invest heavily in research to develop solutions to help to decarbonise the transport sector.
I’m unsure about the picture, but it could be a number of buses or trucks connected to a large battery.
This press release on the BP web site, is the original source for The Times article and it is entitled BP To Invest Up To £50 million In New Global Battery Research And Development Centre In Britain.
The press release starts with these bullet points.
- bp continuing to invest in the UK, with new investment of up to £50 million for new electric vehicle battery testing centre and analytical laboratory in Pangbourne.
- Aims to advance development of engineering, battery technology and fluid technology and engineering into new applications such as electric vehicles, charging and data centres.
- New facilities at its Castrol headquarters and technology centre expected to open in 2024, supporting the technology, engineering and science jobs housed there today.
I find these sentences interesting.
new applications such as electric vehicles, charging and data centres
This sentence is a bit of a mess as electric vehicles are not new, charging is well established and what have data centres got to do with batteries.
I have a friend, who runs a large fleet of electric buses and charging is a problem, as getting the required number of MWhs to the garage can be a problem in a crowded city.
But could it be, that BP are thinking of a battery-based solution, that trickle-charges when electricity is affordable and then charges buses or other vehicles as required, throughout the day?
I believe that a battery based on process engineering like Highview Power’s CRYOBattery could be ideal in this situation.
- Effectively, the bus garage or transport parking would have its own high capacity battery-powered charging network.
- The storage capacity of the battery would be geared to the daily charge load of the vehicles.
- It would reduce the cost of electricity to the operator.
Such a battery might also be ideal to power a battery charging station.
I don’t know much about data centres, except that they need a lot of electricity.
Would driving data centres from a battery, that was trickle-charged overnight mean that the cost of electricity was reduced?
bp today unveiled plans to invest up to £50 million (around $60 million) in a new, state-of-the-art electric vehicle (EV) battery testing centre and analytical laboratory in the UK
There are a lot of battery ideas in the pipeline, so will one of the tasks be to find the best batteries for BP’s needs?
The site already undertakes research and development of fuels, lubricants and EV fluids and aims to become a leading hub for fluid technologies and engineering in the UK
You don’t think of lubricants being associated with electric vehicles, but obviously BP thinks it’s a serious enough topic to do some research.
The new facilities will help advance the development of leading fluid technologies and engineering for hybrid and fully battery electric vehicles, aiming to bring the industry closer to achieving the key tipping points for mainstream electric vehicle (EV) adoption.
This is self-explanatory.
Castrol ON advanced e-fluids manage temperatures within the battery which enables ultra-fast charging and improves efficiency, which help EVs to go further on a single charge and extend the life of the drivetrain system
Lubrication helps the world go round.
In addition, the advanced e-fluid technologies and engineering can be applied to other industries such as thermal management fluids for data centres where demand is rising exponentially
This is an interesting application and it will become increasingly important.
The growth of EV fluids is a huge opportunity, and we aim to be the market leader in this sector
I didn’t realise that EV fluids were so important.
The press release says this about the current status.
Two thirds of the world’s major car manufacturers use Castrol ON EV fluids as a part of their factory fill and we also supply Castrol ON EV fluids to the Jaguar TCS Racing Formula E team.
This press release on the Castrol web site is entitled CASTROL ON: Range Of Advanced E-Fluids For Mobility On Land, Sea And In Space.
This is the Castrol ON E-Fluids home page.
Where Will BP Need Batteries?
I can see the following applications are in BP’s sight from this press release.
- Charging fleets of buses and trucks at their garage.
- Powering battery-charging stations at filling stations.
- Providing uninterruptable electricity feeds.
- Powering data centres.
I will give a simple example.
Suppose a bus company wants to electrify the buses in a town.
- They will have thirty double-deck buses each with a 500 kWh battery.
- Wrightbus electric buses charge at 150 kW.
- Charging all buses at the same time would need 4.5 MW
- Each bus will need to be charged overnight and once during the day.
- This means the bus company will need 30 MWh of power per day.
- The largest wind turbines today are around 12 MW and have a capacity factor of 30 %.
- A single turbine could be expected to generate 86 MWh per day.
It looks to me, that a battery in the garage which could provide an output of 5 MW and had a capacity of 100 MWh would link everything together and support the following.
- A fleet of thirty buses.
- All buses charged overnight and at one other time.
- A 12 MW wind turbine.
- Power for the offices and other facilities.
- The battery would provide backup, when there is no wind.
- There would also be a mains connection to the battery for use, when the wind turbine failed.
The size of the battery and the turbine would depend on the number of vehicles and how often, they were to be charged.
BP could replace diesel sales to the bus or transport company, with leasing of a zero-carbon charging system.
Simple systems based on one or two wind turbines, solar panels and a battery would have several applications.
- Charging fleets of buses and trucks at their garage.
- Powering battery-charging stations at filling stations.
- Providing uninterruptable electricity feeds.
- Powering data centres
- Powering farms
- Powering new housing estates
- Powering factories
I can see this becoming a big market, that big energy companies will target.
Are BP planning to develop systems like this, as many of those, who might buy a system, are already their customers?
Choosing the best batteries and designing the system architecture would appear to be within the remit of the new Research Centre at Pangbourne.
Supporting Wind Farms
BP could certainly use a 2.5 GW/30 GWh battery at each of the three large wind farms; Mona, Morgan and Morven, that they are developing in the Irish Sea and off Aberdeen. These wind farms total 5.9 GW and a battery at each one, perhaps co-located with the offshore sub-station could mean that 5.9 GW was much more continuous.
The wind farms would be like virtual nuclear power stations, without any nuclear fuel or waste.
It would also mean that if the wind farm wasn’t needed and was told to switch off, the electricity generated could be stored in BP’s battery.
How many of BP’s other developments around the world could be improved with a co-located battery?
Process Technology
I am very keen on Highview Power’s CRYOBattery, but I do think that some parts of the design could benifit from the sort of technology that BP has used offshore and in the oil industry.
So will BP’s new battery research include offering advice to promising start-ups?
Mona, Morgan And Morven
The title of this post, may sound like a high-class firm of Welsh solicitors, but it is actually the names of three wind farms to be constructed by BP Alternative Energy Investments Ltd and Energie Baden-Württemberg AG.
Mona And Morgan
This EnBW-BP infographic describes the project.
Mona and Morgan do seem to have web page, which gives a simple map and a rather jargon-filled timeline.
Morven
This EnBW-BP infographic describes the project.
Morven does seem to have a web page, which gives a simple map and this statement.
The Morven wind farm is named after a mountain situated in the beautiful hills of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The name derives from the Scottish Gaelic terms “Mhor” and “bheinn” meaning ‘big’ and ‘peak’, symbolic of the scale of opportunity represented by bp’s latest offshore wind project.
This article on Offshore Engineer is entitled ScotWind: BP, EnBW Win Bid to Build 2.9GW Morven Offshore Wind Farm.
This paragraph described the Morven wind farm.
The approximately 860km2 lease is located around 60km off the coast of Aberdeen. The E1 lease is in an advantaged area, allowing the partners to develop it as a fixed-bottom offshore wind project with a total generating capacity of around 2.9 gigawatts (GW), sufficient to power more than three million homes.
And this paragraph, described what BP will do with the energy.
“Along with the offshore wind development, these investments include significant expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Scotland and green hydrogen production. Together, these represent up to £10 billion of investment in support of offshore wind and Scotland’s energy transition,” BP added.
These are two large projects, but so far there is little else on the Internet, except for this press release.
Conclusion
Wind farms can be controversial and for this and other reasons, the general public need more information.
BP and EnBW can do much better.
The Anonymous Widower 