In focus: Industries take new emissions-free steps as IEA maps net-zero path

Several new energy transition developments in the offshore energy and maritime sectors have made headlines this week, contributing to the global 2050 net-zero targets and – at least to some extent – to the ambitious path that International Energy Agency (IEA) mapped in its latest report.

Climate pledges by governments to date, even if fully achieved, would fall well short of what is required to bring global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to net-zero by 2050 and give the world a chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C, according to the IEA’s roadmap.

The roadmap sets out a cost-effective and economically productive pathway to a global economy dominated by renewables instead of fossil fuels. To achieve this, the report sees no new oil and gas fields approved for development beyond projects already committed as of 2021 and calls for scaling up renewable energy build-out, especially solar PV and wind, to reach 90 per cent of global electricity generation in 2050.

Furthermore, progress in the areas of advanced battery storage, electrolysers for hydrogen, and direct air capture and storage could be particularly impactful, according to the IEA.

The report also sees fossil fuel companies such as those working in oil and gas, which would witness a drastic decrease in demand, finding their place in the renewable energy, green hydrogen, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), and similar clean energy sectors where their experience and expertise could be easily transferred.

Transfer of expertise from one industry to another amid the burgeoning energy transition sector has been ongoing for years now, with many industries yet to gain momentum in this transition.

The subsea industry, which has been mainly linked to the oil and gas sector, has been recently urged to act swiftly to capitalise on the energy transition as the road to net zero is already underway and companies need to meet the change of pace required.

Tom Heggarty, principal analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s Energy Transition Practice, said that subsea companies could tap more into the opportunities in offshore wind where they are supporting the installation of turbines, the construction of offshore substations, and transferring power back to shore using subsea cabling.

New opportunities are also opening in emerging technologies such as green hydrogen, which could potentially be produced offshore and piped back to land, and in CCUS, which requires subsea infrastructure to transport it to depleted oil fields for storage once captured onshore.

Two shipping companies have already used their expertise to become early movers in the CCUS industry.

Namely, Danish companies Evergas and Ultragas have launched Dan-Unity CO2, the first shipping company specialised in vessels for the transport of captured CO2 for storage and re-use. The newly established company has also set up a partnership with Carbfix, an Icelandic startup specialising in C02 storage.

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The partners plan to be ready to offer transport and storage of carbon dioxide in 2025, thereby enabling large-scale CO2 emission reductions, building on the expertise of the two companies’ transportation of liquid gasses.

Chemicals giant BASF and the renewable energy developer RWE have presented their own carbon dioxide-free project, which involves building a 2 GW offshore wind farm that would power BASF’s chemical site in Ludwigshafen in Germany and enable CO2-free production of hydrogen.

The aim of the project – which would construct the offshore wind farm in the German part of the North Sea with no public subsidies needed – is to electrify the production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.

This will involve utilising CO2-free technologies such as electrically heated steam cracker furnaces to produce petrochemicals. BASF said it was already working with partners on developing these technologies.

The power of wind will also be used for an LNG-electric containership designed jointly by VPLP Design, Alwena Shipping, SDARI and AYRO.

Trade Wings 2,500, which has now received an Approval in Principle (AiP) from Bureau Veritas, features six Oceanwings wingsails installed on a vertical sliding mechanism so that they can be retracted partially while the vessel is in port, thus minimising the impact on cargo operations.

The 2,500 TEU vessel has an LNG storage tank based on GTT’ Mark III containment system and an LNG power plant designed with pure gas 4-strokes gensets. This architecture can be upgraded to decarbonated fuels in the future such as ammonia or hydrogen.

While wind energy technology is at a fully mature stage, projects backing innovative wind energy solutions and new marine energy technologies are ongoing. One of the most recent calls for demonstration projects in this sector is that from the Basque energy agency Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE).

EVE’s recently launched call for marine renewable energy demonstration projects will be funded under a € 2.5 million state aid programme for renewable energy development and will support pilot testing of prototypes at full-scale, or almost full-scale, for wave energy, offshore wind, and floating wind platforms currently at the demonstration and validation development phase.