In focus: Working together towards a sustainable future

The energy transition process is moving ahead with each passing day as witnessed in a week behind us with a lot of announcements highlighting the net-zero future.

A good example of the will to change comes from CNOOC Petroleum Europe and Flotation Energy, currently involved in a project which would see one of the UK’s largest oil and gas assets electrified with power from a floating offshore wind farm, enabling the reduction of carbon emissions from the oil and gas production in line with the UK’s net-zero goals.

The companies have formed Green Volt Offshore Windfarm – a new venture that will be in charge of developing the Green Volt wind farm. The two are moving forward with the project following the submission of an Offshore Scoping Report.

Also, the project is a major step towards achieving the goals of the UK North Sea Transition deal, which recognises that oil and gas will continue to play a crucial role in the future energy mix.

Therefore, it is critical to reduce the carbon emissions generated by oil and gas production.

Another initiative in which companies work shoulder to shoulder towards a more sustainable future came from Norwegian Electric Systems (NES), part of HAV Group.

Recently, NES secured a contract with ship engineering company Peak Marine Tech to supply the battery and control systems for the converted Fjord Connector cable lay vessel (CLV) to enable zero-emission operations.

Under the contract of an undisclosed value, NES will deliver a complete battery system and upgrade all control and automation systems onboard the vessel. Furthermore, the company will equip the vessel for battery charging while at the port.

NES will design, assemble, and test the systems at its headquarters at Godvik outside Bergen, Norway in the second quarter of 2022. 

In the last week there was also a very important news from the floating solar market – Van Oord has signed a partnership agreement with floating solar specialist HelioRec to investigate the use of floating solar as power source for charging its unmanned survey vessels.

The French start-up Heliorec designs floating solar power plants, and in collaboration with Van Oord, it will be investigating the use of floating solar to power an electric charging station, ultimately meant to charge Van Oord’s electrical unmanned survey vessels.

Commenting the latest news, Polina Vasilenko, CEO and founder at Heliorec, said: “Working with Van Oord gives us the chance to develop a new kind of technology: an electric charging station powered by floating solar. It’s a great opportunity to develop a new concept in collaboration with Van Oord’s world-class experts, implement that concept around the world and accelerate decarbonisation in the maritime sector”.

A couple of days ago, Japanese shipping company Asahi Tanker launched and named the first of its two next-generation all-electric tankers ordered in 2020.

It is powered by a massive lithium-ion battery supplied by Corvus Energy and developed by e5 Lab, a consortium set up by Japanese partners to build up infrastructure services in the marine shipping industry that focus on electrically powered vessels.

Specifically, the tanker achieves zero emissions of CO2, NOx, SOx, and particulates, reducing environmental impact. In addition, reduced noise and vibration will create a more comfortable work environment for the crew members and limit noise pollution in the bay and its surroundings.

Named Asahi, the newbuild is scheduled to enter service in Tokyo Bay as a bunker vessel in March 2022.