World-First Floating Wind Technology to Help Power Oil Rigs
Critical Data For India’s Largest Nuclear Plant Exposed In Massive Breach With over two decades of journalistic experience working in newspapers, trade publications and as a mining reporter, Andrew Topf is a seasoned writer specializing in… It’s not often that wind power and oil and gas are mentioned in the same breath.
The rare occasion concerns a new type of offshore wind turbine launched in China that will power the extraction of fossil fuels by offshore oil platforms.
Developed by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the world’s first 16-megawatt tension-leg platform (TLP) floating offshore wind turbine set sail at the end of June from Zhuhai in Guangdong Province, southern China.
It will be used at the Lufeng oil fields in the South China Sea.
The structure is held in place by tensioned anchor cables.
By contrast, most offshore wind platforms currently in operation are fixed-bottom, meaning they are secured directly to the seabed — typically using monopiles or jacket frames.
Department of Energy saysabout two-thirds of US offshore wind energy potential exists over waters too deep for fixed-bottom wind turbine foundations and instead require floating platforms.
The hulking structure is about 307 meters tall and weighs up to 8,000 tonnes.According to Intelligent Engineering,By single-turbine capacity, it is the largest floating platform of its exact kind ever built… It is expected to generate an average of 54 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.
That is enough to slash carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 35,000 tonnes per year.
Furthermore, the clean juice will save about 15,000 cubic meters of fuel oil that would otherwise be burned to keep the Lufeng pumps spinning.
By routing the platform’s clean electricity straight to the Lufeng oilfield cluster via subsea cables, the project will establish a direct, low-carbon power supply for offshore oil and gas production.
The engineering feat follows the installation by China of the world’s largest offshore converter station, which collects alternating current generated by individual wind turbines, stepping up the voltage and converting it into high-voltage direct current before transmitting the electricity to the onshore grid via subsea cables.
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