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A £20bn project to power oil and gas platforms with green electricity is being planned by Cerulean Winds in the central North Sea. The project aims to link more than 400 offshore turbines with high voltage cables to create an offshore subsea grid that will provide reliability and flexibility of power supply. The company has won the rights to develop projects aimed at reducing the use of gas by offshore installations and hopes to have the infrastructure in place by 2028.
The project is expected to create 10,000 jobs in Scotland, with many in the supply chain. The turbines are due to be installed in the next ten years in 20 sea areas, some anchored to the seabed and some with cables. The project will form a consortium of partners with experience in the sector, including NOV, Siemens Gamesa, Siemens Energy, DEME and Worley.
Cerulean Winds plans to build wind capacity for the oil and gas sector as fast as possible, and then use it to provide power over long-distance high voltage direct current subsea cables for onshore supply throughout Britain and for export. The project will cover three connected large sea areas in the central North Sea, covering nearly 400 square miles (1,000 square km).
The company aims to build the project out in phases, with the first phase for the oil and gas demands. This will serve as a stepping stone to building larger scale floating wind farms, which will create even more job opportunities for Scotland. The supply chain base in Scotland is one of the key reasons why it is one of the best investable countries in the world for large-scale infrastructure in green energy.
