Marine renewable energy could support North Sea oil industry fightback

Governments and industry should foster links between oil and gas and marine renewables firms which could help boost the economy and support the drive to achieve net-zero, experts have said.

A report by the University of Aberdeen highlights the potential for oil and gas firms to use marine renewable energy technologies such as wave power to help cut the carbon emissions associated with production while reducing costs.

It has been published as oil and gas firms face pressure to do more to help tackle the threat of climate change while responding to the challenges posed by the slump in commodity prices triggered by the coronavirus.

“With oil prices at their rock-bottom now is the time for the oil and gas industry to invest in new technologies that help pave way for energy transition to renewable energy,” said David Toke, reader in energy policy at the university.

“There are some great opportunities for innovation in wave power being used to supply power to offshore oil and gas operations, as well as the steps forward that are being taken with offshore wind.”

The report notes that the development of a niche marine renewables market focused on oil and gas could help accelerate work on technologies that could be deployed more widely in mainstream markets to support the transition to a lower carbon energy system.

It says: “The only reason that wind power and solar were able to develop in the way that they have is because they had niches that allowed designers to optimise the technologies, for example supplying wind power electricity to farming cooperatives in Denmark,”.

Oil and gas firms use diesel and gas to power offshore installations.

Equinor plans to use output from the Hywind Tampen floating windfarm it is developing in the Norwegian North Sea to power five big oil and gas production platforms.

The Norwegian giant plans to draw on experience it gained developing the Hywind floating windfarm off Peterhead.

Source: The Herald

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