Oil and gas projects offshore Norway, the UK’s renewable energy policies, and updates on a number of wind, solar, and carbon capture and storage projects featured in Europe’s energy market in recent weeks.
Oil & Gas
OKEA said that the start of equipment installation for the power from shore project at Draugen offshore Norway would begin in the second quarter. Moreover, all key milestones on the Bestla project are on schedule, stated OKEA’s chief executive Svein J. Liknes.
The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority, Havtil, has granted Gassco consent for the installation of a new connection point on the Kvitebjørn gas pipeline to connect Troll B. The Kvitebjørn gas pipeline runs from the Kvitebjørn field to the Kollsnes processing plant. The consent applies to the installation of a new connection point on the Kvitebjørn gas pipeline for a pipeline that will export gas from the Troll B facility, the authority said.
Norway’s energy giant Equinor has established a new business area – power – and appointed Helge Haugane as new executive vice president from September. Haugane is appointed executive vice president for the new PWR business area and will start in the role from September when the organisational changes take effect. Haugane comes from the role as head of Gas & Power in the MMP business area.
“By combining our renewables portfolio with our flexible power offering, we strengthen our competitiveness and value creation in the power market. This reinforces our capability to deliver high returns and the continued disciplined growth in power production,” CEO Anders Opedal said.
Low Carbon Energy
Almost two thirds, 64 percent, of Scotland’s clean power supply chain are investing in the skills, capabilities, and facilities they will need to capitalise on Scotland’s renewable energy market over the next three to five years, a survey of trade body Scottish Renewables’ members has found.
The sixth edition of Scottish Renewables’ Supply Chain Impact Statement, an annual showcase of the businesses and organisations working across Scotland’s renewable energy industry, also showed that 60 percent of respondents do not think the UK and Scottish governments are enabling the right market conditions for Scottish businesses to compete and secure contracts.
“If we’re serious about delivering on our clean power potential and building a world-leading green economy, we need to think bigger than we ever have before,” said Emma Harrick, Director of Energy Transition and Supply Chain at Scottish Renewables.
“This means urgently delivering an economic environment that maximises the entrepreneurial spirit of our clean power supply chain.”
Workers and businesses in the UK’s industrial heartlands will benefit from an initial £300 million of funding through Great British Energy to invest in supply chains for domestic offshore wind. The funding is expected to directly and indirectly mobilise billions in additional private investment – helping de-risk clean energy projects and supporting thousands of jobs and revitalising the UK’s industrial heartlands.
In May, the UK more than doubled the funding for the Clean Industry Bonus from an initial £200 million to £544 million, after hundreds of bids have come through from the UK’s offshore wind sector, exceeding expectations.
The Clean Industry Bonus will provide financial rewards for offshore wind developers, on the condition they prioritise investment in regions that need it most or in cleaner supply chains, including traditional oil and gas communities, ex-industrial areas and ports and coastal towns.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of Ineos, has criticised the UK carbon tax policy, saying that it additionally burdens UK businesses.
The high carbon taxes have made Ineos pause green energy projects, he added.
“This is not just INEOS, this is a reality for British manufacturers up and down the country: carbon emissions taxes and excessive energy costs are squeezing the life out of the sector,” Ratcliffe said.
Ireland can generate at least a further 6,000 MW of wind energy, in addition to what is already built or in the planning system, a new study commissioned by Wind Energy Ireland showed.
“This analysis clearly demonstrates that a significant amount of onshore wind energy can be delivered in just two per cent of the country’s land mass, while taking account of planning and environmental constraints and design requirements,” said Brian Keville, Managing Director of MKO Ireland, the planning and environmental consultancy MKO that produced the study.
In company and project news, Ørsted announced in early May it would discontinue the Hornsea 4 offshore wind project in its current form, due to continued increase of supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and an increase in the risk to construct and operate Hornsea 4 on the planned timeline for a project of this scale.
Ørsted has taken the decision to stop further spend on the project at this time and terminate the project’s supply chain contracts, meaning that Ørsted will not deliver Hornsea 4 under the CfD awarded in allocation round 6 (AR6).
Eni has reached financial close with the UK Government for the Liverpool Bay CCS project, where Eni is the operator of the CO2 transport and storage system (T&S) of the HyNet industrial cluster. The financial close allows the Liverpool Bay CCS project to move into the construction phase, unlocking key investments in supply chain contracts, the majority of which will be spent locally.
“The strategic agreement with the UK Government paves the way for the industrial-scale development of CCS, a sector in which the United Kingdom reaffirms its leadership thanks to the promotion of a regulatory framework that aims to strengthen the development of CCS and make it fully competitive in the market,” Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has awarded three carbon storage permits to Eni for Liverpool Bay CCS, the CO2 transportation and storage system which will serve the HyNet industrial cluster.
The system, which will take CO2 from large-scale industrial emitters in north-west England and north Wales, will unlock about £2 billion worth of supply chain contracts and create 2,000 construction jobs, the NSTA said.
Eni has awarded to fellow Italian energy services contractor Saipem a contract of about 520 million euros over the three years required to complete the Liverpool Bay CCS project. Saipem will convert a traditional Gas Compression and Treatment facility at Point of Ayr, in north Wales, into an innovative CO2 Electrical Compression Station allowing for permanent CO2 storage in offshore depleted fields under Liverpool Bay.
Statera Energy has secured a resolution to grant planning permission from Aberdeenshire Council for the UK’s largest green hydrogen project, Kintore Hydrogen. The project will produce green hydrogen using abundant power from Scottish wind farms that could otherwise be turned off, saving billions in wind curtailment costs whilst providing significant carbon savings, Statera Energy said.
Glen Earrach Energy (GEE) has submitted its application for a 2-GW pumped storage hydro (PSH) project near Loch Ness. The project would be one of the UK’s largest and most efficient energy storage schemes.
Calderdale Energy Park, the proponents of England’s largest wind farm, have scaled back the project, proposing up to 41 wind turbines up to a tip height of 200m and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), together with all necessary associated temporary and permanent infrastructure. The number of turbines is reduced by 24 compared to the initial proposal. Unlike in the original plans, solar panels are no longer part of the proposed wind Calderdale Energy Park.
SSE has received a grant of planning permission from Mayo County Council for its proposed Mullafarry Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). The project will be developed on an SSE-owned site in Tawnaghmore Upper, adjacent to the existing 104-MW Tawnaghmore Power Station in Killala Business Park, North Mayo.
BOOM Power has received development consent for its East Yorkshire Solar Farm, which is expected to generate 400 MW of low-carbon electricity, sufficient to power around 100,000 homes.
Octopus Energy Generation is buying Germany’s MN projects GmbH, a green energy developer boasting a 2 GW pipeline of renewables projects. Hamburg-based MN projects GmbH is developing more than 70 renewable energy sites across Germany.
Öresundskraft Kraft & Värme AB and INEOS-led Project Greensand have signed an agreement to consider the opportunity to store up to 210,000 tonnes of CO2 annually from Sweden in Denmark. The captured carbon dioxide is planned for safe and permanent storage in Greensand storage facility located in the Danish part of the North Sea, with the first volumes expected to be stored from 2028.
Equinor and Polenergia have secured a final environmental decision for the Bałtyk 1 Project, which paves the way for Poland’s largest planned offshore wind farm with a planned capacity of up to 1,560 MW.
Polenergia and Equinor are jointly developing three offshore wind projects—Bałtyk 1, Bałtyk 2, and Bałtyk 3—with a combined capacity of up to 3,000 MW, sufficient to power 4 million households with clean energy.
Power utility giant Vattenfall and energy flexibility provider terralayr have signed a 7-year, 55 MW multi-asset capacity tolling deal, which is an industry-first virtual battery tolling structure. The two companies have signed a ground-breaking offtake agreement for a decentralised fleet of battery storage systems. The batteries are developed, built, and aggregated by terralayr through its proprietary flexibility platform. A portion of the total capacity is then operated by Vattenfall in Hamburg under a long-term offtake agreement and optimised in the energy markets.
Unlike conventional tolling agreements tied to a single physical asset, this deal is structured around aggregated capacity from multiple decentralised grid-scale batteries, terralayr said.
