Renewables for Oil & Gas, a new kind of energy mix?

There has been a lot of press coverage with regards to EC-OG’s Subsea Power Hub (SPH), all of it very good! (Thank you Press and Journal) 

However there still seems to be some confusion as to what it is, and where it sits in the greater energy mix, it’s a renewable, but (initially) it's for Oil & Gas....do you dare mention the two together?

To understand this I think we need take a step back and explain the renewable energies available and how we extract them. Water based renewable energy on a large scale is normally put into one of 3 categories, Hydro, Wave and Tidal. In no particular merit order, let's have quick look shall we:

Hydro -  The most common of water based renewables, extracts energy using water, gravity and a turbine.

Hydro power generation Pitlochry Scotland, operated by SSE.

That leaves us with the two fledgling energies, Wave and Tidal. 

Wave - wave energy still proves to be elusive, the problem with converting those massive amounts of energy, is that you have to put something in the middle of that massive amount of energy... cue the sound of breaking things.

Pelamis wave energy converter

Tidal - This is now moving forward because the machines are becoming more robust, and we could see the first power from a permanent farm being generated very soon.

Andritz Hydro

So where does the Subsea Power Hub fit in then, and which one of those 3 renewables is it? Well, in fact it is none of them.

"The Subsea Power Hub uses ocean currents, so isn’t that tidal?" you say. No, Ocean Currents and Tidal are both movements of water where energy can be extracted, however tides are based on the cycles of the moon whereas ocean currents are a multitude of things including winds, tides, seasons and bathymetric features.

The Tidal energy devices you may be familiar with start rotating around 1.5m/s (3 knots) and go to over 12 knots. The Subsea Power Hub is designed to work in significantly slower flow than that, from 1m/s (2 knots) and slower. This means the Subsea Power Hub works in harmony with ocean currents.

The Oil & Gas industry sits many kilometres from the coastline, and this brings logistical challenges. For example, getting goods and services to these remote locations i.e. the rigs and FPSO’s.

In addition to these logistical challenges, when we are talking about the power supply, it is needed even further out, often many kilometres from the rigs or FPSO’s. And of course because this power is required underwater, the challenge for the industry is not the power alone, but getting it to where it's needed!

So the Subsea Power Hub is a renewable energy device, however the energy it produces allows the extraction of energy in other forms, in this case Oil & Gas. 

With renewable energy it is normally more expensive to produce than with conventional means, therefore subsidies are required to allow the feed in rates to be comparable. What the SPH does is provide electrical power which can add real value by making the Oil & Gas industry more cost effective. 

The Subsea Power Hub concept is not to provide large quantities of power, but enough to be able to do the task in hand. It can be stacked to provide larger quantities of power as necessary though. A renewable that adds up? 

The SPH may evolve into the future of energy, however for the moment it should form a small but potentially valuable piece of the overall energy mix.

EC-OG Subsea Power Hub