July 24, 2006

Deepwater wind farm is a prototype

CALGARY

Work has started on a $70-million wind power project near Talisman Energy Inc.’s Beatrice oil platform off Scotland that could eventually be expanded to supply 20 per cent of the region’s electricity needs.

“It is a prototype of wind power that has two benefits,” said Talisman Energy president and CEO Jim Buckee. “By being 25 miles offshore, it doesn’t have any visual impact and the wind is steadier there.

“And the European Commission is making a big push for 20 per cent and occasionally 25 per cent of renewable energy and this is an important component of that strategy.”

The project will use two of the largest turbines installed anywhere in the world, each 85 metres tall, to test the technical and economic feasibility of deepwater wind farms in depths of about 45 metres.

The first of the two five megawatt turbines will sail out from the Nigg Fabrication Yard in early August, depending on the weather.

The first electricity should be produced by the turbine in October, said Buckee, and will be used to power the Beatrice platform operation, which Talisman operates about 25 kilometres off Scotland’s east coast.

The project will be monitored for five years, and if all goes well the long-term benefits will be substantial, said Buckee.

“The notion is that if it works we’ll multiply it by 100 and then it becomes a gigawatts windfarm and then you’re talking 20 per cent of Scottish power needs,” he explained.

“There is a marriage of minds because they get us into the grid and they’re working the electricity side of it and we’re working the offshore and construction sides.”

The existing Beatrice infrastructure has been modified to use the electricity generated by the demonstrator turbines, and the production platforms will provide a base from which the turbines can be monitored and maintained.

If successful, the concept could be used elsewhere, Buckee said.

“Nobody has done anything exactly like this but there are offshore windmills in Denmark. They haven’t been very successful but technology is moving all the time.”

CANADIAN PRESS

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