In focus: Strengthening cooperation on clean energy and environmental protection

New projects in the transformation of the offshore energy sector are here. In this process, the industry is dealing with the following questions: to provide energy that is secure, affordable and lower in carbon.

The European Union (EU) and Norway recently formed a Green Alliance to strengthen their cooperation on clean energy and industrial transition as well as joint climate action and environmental protection efforts.

The agreement was signed on 24 April in Brussels by the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, and Norway’s Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

Oceans of Energy has been awarded the contract for installing and operating offshore solar farm inside the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind park being developed by CrossWind, a joint-venture between Shell and Eneco.

This is set to be the first offshore solar farm in the world to be connected, installed and operated within a wind farm in high wave conditions. The offshore solar farm will be realized in 2025, while the wind park will be operational by the end of 2023, according to Oceans of Energy.

With offshore solar added to offshore wind it is possible to also produce energy on sunny but less windy days and hence increase the utilization of the offshore power grid infrastructure.

The Dutch government has awarded a €3 million grant to BW Offshore, Switch2, MARIN, TU Delft, and Strohm to develop a floating hydrogen and/or ammonia production and storage facility which will be connected to an offshore wind farm.

The project, named OFFSET, involves building an industrial-scale floating green hydrogen and ammonia facility based on the proven concept of floating production and offloading vessel (FPSO).

Planned to be linked with an adjacent wind farm by 2027, the facility will produce hydrogen that can be transported to shore through existing oil and gas pipelines or newly installed Thermoplastic Composite Pipe (TCP), while the produced ammonia can be transported to end-users by shuttle tankers.

Xlinks has secured £30 million in funding for the development of what is described as the world’s longest HVDC subsea cable that will link Morocco to the UK.

In the early development funding round, £25 million comes from Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA) and £5 million from energy technology company Octopus Energy Group.

With this funding, Xlinks will undertake the development of plans to lay the HVDC subsea cables between the UK and Morocco, passing Portugal, Spain and France as part of the Morocco-UK Power Project.

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has awarded Approval in Principle (AiP) to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) for their ammonia floating storage re-gasification unit (FSRU), the first of its kind in Korea.

HHI’s ammonia-FSRU will store liquefied ammonia transported from production areas and can perform regasification to supply to shipowners and operators.

FRSUs are an increasingly viable alternative to meet the growing demand for liquefied gas storage and regasification and are significantly more affordable to operate than onshore plants.

The AiP follows the launching of a joint development project between LR, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), HD HHI KSOE.

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) has thrown support behind the Climate Change Authority’s focus on carbon capture technology, after the importance of carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) to reaching net-zero was highlighted in CCA’s new report, urging for more support to back the technology.

APPEA recently highlighted that a new Climate Change Authority’s policy paper, titled Reduce, remove and store: The role of carbon sequestration in accelerating Australia’s decarbonisation, underscored “the significant economic and environmental benefits” of CCUS for Australia.

The CCA released this report following estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that around 6 billion tonnes of CO2 would have to be removed per year by 2050 globally, and about 14 billion tonnes per year by 2100 for a 50 per cent chance of limiting global warming to below 1.5°C.

The Climate Change Authority’s paper contains 23 policy insights as part of a deep dive designed to help policymakers, emitters and markets better understand how sequestration can be scaled up, accelerated and used responsibly.