LOCE Wind and Wave Energy Weblog

The web's first ocean and offshore wind energy weblog. Continuously renewed, like the ocean itself.

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Wind Farm Will Help Recycle Oil Field


Offshore wind isn't just a "renewable" product - it's also a recycled one as well. At least that's the case with a proposed deep water offshore wind project which will occupy a dying oil field on the Outer Continental Shelf twelve miles off the Scottish coast - reported here in Wind Farm to Breathe New Life Into Oil Field Sunday Herald (8/31/03). Here's a summary of the project from the article:

The First Minister ... announce[d] the awarding of a research grant of up to £194,000 from the Scottish Executive and Department of Trade and Industry to fund a study to design the world's first deep water offshore wind farm.

The ambitious project, which also has the backing of the European Commission, would see the Talisman-SSE joint venture building up to 200 turbines linked to the existing Beatrice oil field that could generate up to 1000 megawatts of electricity. This is enough to supply power to a city the size of Aberdeen and meet about half of the new-generation energy needed to meet the Executive's renewable energy target. The project would aim to make the most of Scotland's position as a 'wind-rich' country, with 40% of Europe's wind resource blowing around our shores.

McConnell summed up the potential of the project: 'It's the first of its kind in the world. It's using both Scotland's natural resources and the expertise and experience that we have both in the North Sea energy industry and electricity industry to potentially revolutionise the way we generate energy in Scotland.

'That is a massive opportunity. It will help create jobs, it will improve our environment and it will leave a legacy for future generations that could be as significant as some of the decisions that were made about energy policy and the energy industry after the second world war or in the 1960s and 1970s.'


The United States may want to follow the progress of this Scottish innovation and determine how it might fit with our nation's still-evolving offshore program.

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