State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) on Thursday announced the start of operations of the world’s first 16-megawatt tension-leg platform (TLP) floating wind power platform, which began supplying power to an offshore oilfield.
CNOOC, one of the biggest oil producers in China and a specialist in offshore technology, connected the Haiyou Anlan floating wind power platform to the Lufeng Oilfield grid via a 4.3-kilometer-long (2.7 miles) subsea cable, the company said in a statement carried by Chinese media.
The TLP-supported floating wind power platform has been designed to withstand extreme wind and weather conditions that a super typhoon could bring, according to the Chinese oil giant.
The new floating wind turbine marks “a major step forward for China’s deep-sea floating wind equipment technology, opening a new pathway for the nation’s offshore wind power development,” Chinese media quoted CNOOC as saying.
The floating wind power platform was installed 136 kilometers (85 miles) from the coast in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the northern part of the South China Sea. It is expected to generate 54 million kilowatt-hours of wind-powered electricity annually, CNOOC said.
Yet, the oil giant has combined the wind power generation with storage and conventional fuel generation to manage the volatility in wind speeds and power generation.
CNOOC and Chinese media tout the approach as “oil and gas plus new energy” to develop deepwater energy resources.
Floating wind platform technology could be the key to unlocking wind power resources in deep waters, where the fixed-bottom wind turbines don’t work. The floating turbines can also help lower emissions from fuel burning at oil and gas platforms, just as CNOOC aims to do with its project at the Lufeng Oilfield.
The Chinese oil and gas giant expects the wind power supply to save 15,000 cubic meters of fuel oil annually and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 35,000 tons per year.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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