ORE Catapult - Building back better though a just energy transition

Hugh Riddell, Regional Partnerships Manager, highlights the future opportunities and various initiatives underway at the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult to accelerate the transition to Net Zero and realise a green energy future.

The next thirty years will see a radical shift in the way in which we generate and consume energy in the UK if we are to meet our Net Zero carbon emissions targets by 2050 and kick start a green economic recovery post-Covid-19. And in the year when COP26 comes to Glasgow, sustainability and tackling the climate emergency come sharply into focus.

The UK Government has laid out its Build Back Better Plan for Growth. The Plan has three core pillars of growth: Infrastructure, skills and innovation, designed to level up the whole of the UK and support the transition to Net Zero and a vision for a Global Britain. Working within this framework, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the UK’s leading technology innovation and research centre for offshore renewable energy, has convened industry-leading projects and collaborations designed to accelerate the energy transition and achieve the estimated 100 GW of offshore wind the Committee on Climate Change projects we’ll need to achieve Net Zero.

The size of the prize on offer is enormous. Our energy transition activities are focused on four main themes: decarbonisation, accelerating the development of floating offshore wind and green hydrogen technologies, and promoting a circular economy approach to a sustainable offshore wind sector. Green hydrogen and floating offshore wind could generate over £350bn for the UK economy by 2050 and sustain 137,000 jobs with huge export potential: Europe’s hydrogen market alone is anticipated to grow to £105bn by 2050. At the global scale, circular economy approaches could help to reduce global carbon emissions by 63% by 2050 while opening $25 trillion in new business opportunities. In the UK, we estimate that a spin-off circular economy from wind could generate an additional 20,000 jobs.

As the demand for green electricity grows and we transition from fossil fuels towards a low-carbon, sustainable energy supply, the challenge will be ensuring we invest now in technology innovation and work collaboratively across the entire energy sector to realise these future economic benefits.

In the oil and gas and offshore wind sectors, in particular, there are synergies that should enable strong partnerships, facilitate cross-sector innovation and drive supply chain growth. There is a natural alignment in terms of skills and technology transfer that will inevitably allow the offshore wind industry – particularly floating offshore wind – to grow, while aiding the decarbonisation of the oil and gas sector. We work closely with OGTC to support this cross-sector collaboration and foster supply chain growth opportunities for both industries. Our recent Reimagining A Net Zero North Sea Report highlighted that up to £416bn of investment is needed to create a net-zero North Sea over the next 30 years, but that, in turn, could deliver £125bn per year to the UK economy.

Both organisations recognise that leveraging our oil and gas industry's innovation, skills, experience and investment is imperative to a just energy transition, seizing this moment to protect and create thousands of jobs and deliver net zero.

This partnership has led to the creation of the Energy Transition Alliance (ETA). This ground-breaking collaboration will develop a roadmap to how the North Sea Basin will transition from an oil and gas-powered world today to a position that aligns with the Government’s Net Zero targets by 2050. The roadmap will set out an ambitious plan for decarbonising the production of oil and gas using floating wind power, an overall increase in renewable energy production, the generation of blue and green hydrogen, and the growth in carbon capture storage facilities.

The development of floating offshore wind is also a vital part of the race to Net Zero. We’ve established the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence, an internationally recognised initiative to drive forward the commercialisation of floating wind, maximising UK economic benefit and job creation whilst reducing the UK’s carbon emissions. In collaboration with academia and 13 of the leading floating offshore wind project developers, the Centre will accelerate the build-out of floating farms, create opportunities for the UK supply chain, and drive manufacturing, installation and operations and maintenance innovations.

As well as supporting the decarbonisation of the oil and gas industry, the offshore wind sector is also beginning to focus on its own long-term sustainability and route to decarbonisation.

One of the most significant contributors to carbon emissions in offshore wind is the use of offshore crew transfer and support vessels. In partnership with the Workboat Association and on behalf of the UK Government, we’re developing a technology roadmap outlining a route to the decarbonisation of North Sea offshore wind vessels. Due to be published in the near future, the roadmap will recommend a set of clear, evidence-based guidelines to inform industry, investors, and policymakers on how best to decarbonise the sector.

Finally, as our first generation of offshore wind turbines approach their end-of-life, the sector is turning its attention to embedding a circular economy model at the heart of future growth. The environmental imperative to adopt circular economy practices throughout our economy is well documented. We need to reduce the use of virgin materials, move to more sustainable and recyclable sources, and ensure components live longer lives – and even second lives - as refurbished, reused or remanufactured parts. This can also dovetail beautifully into the UK’s post-COVID recovery as it presents a golden supply chain opportunity for the next decade: a spin-off circular economy from the wind sector that would create thousands of new jobs. Through various projects, including our new Circular Economy in the Wind Sector (CEWS) Joint Industry Project, we are laying the foundations of a circular economy supply chain for the sector, investigating the best reuse, recycling or sustainable disposal methods for decommissioned offshore wind turbines.

As we gear up for COP26 in November, we must invest now in the technology needed to develop an integrated, net-zero offshore energy system that will help us achieve Net Zero, deliver thousands of new jobs and billions of pounds to the UK economy - a welcome economic boost as we seek to recover from the global impacts of Covid-19.