Offshore wind farms can be green but lean - say energy experts

The costs of offshore wind operations could be reduced globally by at least 20 per cent through the expertise of Scotland’s world-leading oil and gas supply chain, according to a new report.

Developed to highlight the opportunities and benefits for the oil and gas sector from getting involved in offshore wind, the report estimates that over the average life-cycle of a generic offshore wind farm the oil and gas sector could deliver 330 million pounds’ worth of savings.

The Scottish Enterprise report - The guide to offshore wind and oil & gas capability - highlights potential crossovers between the two sectors where the skills, knowledge and expertise of the oil and gas sector could significantly cut project development timescales and operational project costs - areas such as installation, personnel transfer and operational and maintenance activity.

Worldwide, the United Kingdom, Germany and China are the three largest offshore wind markets and, together, over the next four years will install 11 gigawatt (GW) of offshore wind capacity - almost 83 per cent of the total global capacity.

The UK is forecast to be the largest market during 2011 to 2015 as the UK completes the first phase of projects linked to the Scottish Territorial Waters and Crown Estate round three licence awards. In Scotland, there could be up to 10GW capacity installed by 2020.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Inward investment announcements over the last year have underlined Scotland’s position as a leading location for the development of offshore renewable technology, building on our competitive advantage gained through decades of offshore engineering expertise from our oil and gas industry. The summit that proposed this guide was itself a result of discussions at last year’s inaugural Scottish Low Carbon Investment [SLCI] conference.

He said there would be further debate about how public and private sectors can work together to seize the opportunities of the burgeoning global offshore renewables industry, while tackling the challenges, including driving down costs. “The guide can provide an important contribution to those discussions,” he added.

Adrian Gillespie, director of energy and low carbon technologies at Scottish Enterprise, said, “With the UK offshore wind market set to grow rapidly over the next four years, and the Scottish government’s ambitious renewable energy generation targets, we must ensure Scotland is best placed to capitalise on these opportunities.

“Scotland has over 40 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector [and] which could greatly benefit the offshore wind sector. By encouraging greater collaboration and knowledge sharing between these two important sectors, we will create a lasting and positive effect on the Scottish economy,” he added.

The guide includes a number of case studies. One of these, concerning Aberdeen-based energy engineering consultancy, Xodus Group, recognised the benefits of diversifying its oil and gas roots into the offshore wind sector.

Since entering the low carbon market, the company now attributes more than two million pounds of its turnover to the sector, and predicts this figure will rise to 10 million by 2015.

Xodus group chief executive officer Colin Manson said: “The opportunities in the low carbon market - and specifically the offshore wind sector - for oil and gas companies are vast and we anticipate our turnover to increase significantly over the next four years through greater collaboration with developers, academia and the finance sector.”