Infrastructure developer Cerulean Winds has named NOV as the first of its delivery partners for the fabrication of its proposed integrated 200-turbine floating wind and hydrogen development off the coast of Scotland.
The arrangement would establish NOV as the exclusive provider of floating and mooring systems in support of the venture, which would have the capacity to accelerate the decarbonization of oil and gas assets in the UKCS by more than halving the 18 million tons of CO2 they currently produce by 2025.
NOV, one of the largest providers of marine equipment and wind vessel designs in the world, has more than 20 years of experience in the offshore wind sector and expertise in the installation and maintenance of floating structures in the energy space.
Cerulean Winds is led by Dan Jackson and Mark Dixon, who have more than 25 years’ experience working together on large-scale offshore infrastructure developments in the oil and gas industry.
“We are very pleased to announce NOV’s involvement with the project,” Dixon says. “As the largest and most qualified provider of marine equipment and wind vessel designs working in this space, the experience and knowledge they will bring to a project of this magnitude is second to none. Having them on board brings the scheme a step closer to reality.
“We are very excited to partner with Cerulean on this groundbreaking proposal, which will leverage NOV’s core competencies as well as our U.K. and European infrastructure and personnel in a key energy transition project,” adds Joe Rovig, president of NOV Rig Technologies.
Cerulean Winds has submitted a formal request to Marine Scotland for seabed leases, and these must be granted by Q3 in 2021 to target financial close in Q1 2022 and to begin construction soon after so that the infrastructure is in place by 2024-2026.
The proposed development involves over 200 of the largest floating turbines at sites West of Shetland and in the Central North Sea, with 3 GWh of capacity, feeding power to the offshore facilities and in excess of 1.5 GWh of power to onshore green hydrogen plants.
