Oil link for offshore wind

North Sea rig is testing ground for deepwater turbines

The wind could soon breathe new life into an ageing North Sea oil rig. Which is good news not just for fossil fuel addicts, but for the more forward-looking offshore wind industry, taking it into deeper waters than ever before.

By the time you read this, two massive 5MW wind turbines, installed 23km offshore in the Moray Firth (and barely visible from the coast even in good weather), should be providing about one third of the energy needs of the nearby Beatrice Alpha oil platform.

Britain’s North Sea rigs currently use electricity piped in from the national grid. But this £35 million project, if it proves both technically and economically successful, could open the way to the eventual installation of 100-200 wind turbines, says Dave Mann, spokesman for the rig operator, Calgary-based Talisman Energy. At that scale, the Beatrice platform and its infrastructure would in effect be partially ‘recycled’ as an electricity substation for the huge wind farm - which would, in turn, extend the life of the oil field by a decade or more.

It’s only likely to be viable, Mann concedes, if turbine installation costs can be slashed by a factor of two to three. The first two Beatrice windmills are costing far more per megawatt than shallow water turbines - and there’s little on which to base predictions about likely wear and tear, costs of maintenance, or the impact on the environment. But they should benefit from stronger and more consistent wind. And, by contrast with land-based and near-shore wind farm schemes, there shouldn’t be much of an issue about their visual impact.

In terms of sheer size, they do represent something of a leap into the unknown. Alison Hill at the British Wind Energy Association is hoping that the “ambitious and high profile” project will give the UK a real boost in the offshore wind business - and is understandably looking forward with great interest to see how it performs. “The link-up with the offshore oil and gas industry, both literal and metaphoric, is a huge boost for the project,” she says.

Government backing is reflected in funding from the DTI, the Scottish Executive and the EU. And it surely bodes well for the Beatrice project - a joint venture between Talisman and Scottish and Southern Energy - that it’s being backed by DOWNVInD. That’s the Nordic-sounding acronym for what’s currently the largest EU renewable energy development consortium, Distant Offshore Wind Farms with No Visual Impact in Deepwater. - Ros Davidson

9 November 2006

Ros Davidson