In focus: Ships, oil & gas platforms to get greener by the day with clean fuels and renewables

Massive investment announcements and ambitious new developments in the energy and shipping sectors marked this week on Offshore Energy (well, together with our Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference), as work on the global energy transition is moving forward through numerous new initiatives.

One of the biggest news this week was the Japanese Shipowners’ Association’s (JSA’s) announcement that the country’s shipping industry would invest a whopping $280 billion in the shipping sector to reach 2050 zero-carbon targets.

To meet the 2050 target, the industry will need to build an average of 100 ships per year at a cost of $10bn annually in the next three decades, with cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders from various industries required to reach the goal, including the energy and port industries, cargo owners and trading companies, as well as the shipbuilding industry.

The Japanese merchant fleet, which comprises about 2,200 vessels, will be powered by clean fuels in the future such as carbon recycled methane, hydrogen and ammonia. Making efforts throughout the whole supply chain, such as research and the development of new ships and new fuels, and the establishment of fuel supply facilities will be needed to meet the target, the JSA said.

The global maritime sector has been focused on decarbonisation and new solutions for a while now and has already produced several low-emission vessels and decarbonisation solutions, with clean fuels being at the forefront of the sector’s transition to net-zero.

One such solution comes from Echandia, a Stockholm-based developer of advanced battery and fuel cell systems for maritime electrification, which received an order for the world’s first emission-free high-speed catamaran this week.

Echandia will supply an integrated battery and hydrogen-based fuel cell system for a Beluga24 ferry, designed by Teknicraft in New Zealand and the Italian Studio Sculli and being built in carbon fiber by Green City Ferries north of Stockholm.

The installation onboard the ferry, which is intended for commercial traffic in Stockholm, will take place in the autumn of 2022.

New decarbonisation projects in the fossil energy sector also continue to emerge, with one of the latest unveiled in Norway, where Odfjell Oceanwind, OKEA, and the utility company TrønderEnergi signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly evaluate the potential of developing a floating offshore wind farm that will be connected to the Draugen platform.

The project’s floating wind turbines would provide renewable power to the Draugen platform and utilise the Draugen infrastructure, including the planned power from shore cable.

The next step for the three partners is to perform early-stage technical, economical and regulatory evaluations, and study the potential impact on the environment and climate, before moving forward with the project.

Norway is already home to the world’s first development involving electrification of oil and gas platforms with floating offshore wind power with Equinor’s Hywind Tampen project, currently under construction.

Similar developments could also be a major part of the UK’s efforts to cut the emissions from oil and gas platforms, as the country’s petroleum regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), confirmed this week that it had received a total of 29 bids in its £1 million ($1.4 million) decarbonisation competition for the electrification of offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

Operators, supply chain and academia have submitted high-quality studies touching on technical, engineering and/or commercial ideas, which will now be assessed.

Powering installations using electricity either from a cable to the shore or from a nearby wind farm could lead to 2-3 million tonnes per annum CO2 emissions reductions, according to the OGA, as power generation accounts for around two-thirds of oil and gas production emissions.

The regulator outlined that the resulting power demand from offshore oil and gas electrification could potentially support up to 4 GW of new offshore wind power capacity.

The competition winners, who will each get a share of the fund, will be announced in early December, with the work expected to be completed by 31 March 2021 and project reports to be published in the second quarter of 2022.

Back to massive investments, while staying in the UK and on the topic of renewables, a £1.7 billion (around €2 billion) project involving a newly-designed tidal lagoon has been announced by an international consortium.

The tidal lagoon will feature state-of-the-art underwater turbines generating 320 MW of renewable energy and is part of a larger proposed project, called Blue Eden, led by Welsh-based DST Innovations and a number of business partners, with support from Swansea Council and Associated British Ports.

The project plan also includes a 60,000 square-metre manufacturing plant to make high-tech batteries for renewable energy storage, and a battery facility that stores the renewable energy produced at Blue Eden and power the site.

Made possible by funding from the private sector, Blue Eden would be delivered in three phases over 12 years, with work on site starting by early 2023, subject to planning consent.

In addition, a 72,000 square-metre floating solar array is planned to be anchored in the Queen’s dock area, helping offset CO2 emissions by an estimated two million kilogrammes a year.