TotalEnergies has launched a pilot project consisting of a floating wind turbine to supply renewable power to the Culzean offshore platform in the UK North Sea.
Culzean is a high-pressure, high-temperature gas condensate field located in Block 22/25a in the East Central Graben area.
The 3MW floating wind turbine will be located 2km west of the Culzean platform, 220km off the eastern coast of Scotland. This turbine, expected to be fully operational by end 2025, will supply around 20% of Culzean’s power requirement, thereby reducing its GHG emissions.
The turbine will be installed on a modular, light semi-submersible floater hull designed by Ocergy, allowing for fast assembly and optimized costs.
“This innovative pilot project aims at proving the concept of hybridization of power generation on an offshore facility by integrating the generation of renewable electricity from a floating wind turbine with the existing power generation from gas turbines. It also aims at qualifying a promising floater design for the future of floating offshore wind,” said Marie-Noelle Semeria, Chief Technology Officer at TotalEnergies.
This pilot project was selected in Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing round, designed to encourage and support the use of offshore wind energy to directly supply offshore oil and gas platforms.