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The North Sea is famous as one of Europe’s top crude production sites, with the UK and Norway accounting for about 80% of the region’s output. Unfortunately, the North Sea has already entered a phase of terminal decline. Last year, the oil basin produced 34 m tonnes of oil, its lowest since production was established in the 1970s. Scores of Big Oil companies have been pulling out of the aging oil basin, with production expected to continue shrinking despite the UK government recently issuing a raft of licenses. Meanwhile, other producers are scaling back investments or exiting the basin ahead of new tax increases on the sector.
Thankfully, Europe is coming up with innovative ways to put its declining energy powerhouse into good use. Belgium has kicked off the process of constructing an artificial island in the North Sea that will serve as a regional energy interconnection hub. Located off the Belgian coast in the North Sea, Princess Elisabeth will serve as an electricity hub that will bundle together the cables leading to wind farms in Belgium’s second offshore wind zone, helping to bring the electricity they generate back to shore. The tiny island will also act as an intermediate landing point for interconnectors that link Belgium to other European countries. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has already approved a €650 million (around US$705 million) grant to Belgium’s high-voltage grid operator Elia Transmission Belgium to build the island.
TM EDISON, Princess Elisabeth’s main contractor, has kicked off the construction process which it estimates will take ~2.5 years to complete. Basically, the company will raise a six-hectare island out of the sea, or the size of twelve football fields. The company will first construct caissons that will form the outer ring of the island. The 23 armored concrete blocks all measure 58 m long, 28 m high and 28 m width, with a weight of 20,000 tonnes apiece. The building process of the caissons will take place in Flushing, in the UK. While working on the caissons, Edison’s rock installation vessel Simon Stevin will place rocks on the seabed to serve as a firm foundation for the caissons. The caissons, which will form the contours of the island, will be placed in a timespan of two years, with works temporarily suspended during the stormy winter months. Once finished, it will bring the 23 partially submerged caissons with tugboats to their final location at sea. Afterwards, the dredging vessels will fill the inside with sand, which will make the caissons sink further and take up their final position on the rock foundations. The company will then fill up the core of the island with sand and compact it. On the island, Elia will build the necessary electrical infrastructure. The island will come complete with a small harbor with mooring berths for safe and smooth personnel transfers. The works are planned to finish in 2026.
Geothermal Energy In the North Sea
Researchers at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University’s Global Research Institute for “net zero and beyond,” iNetz+, are exploring how to repurpose the North Sea’s oil and gas wells for geothermal energy. According to the experts, repurposing existing infrastructure for geothermal energy offers manifold advantages. First off, it’s a cost-effective approach that avoids the environmental impact and substantial expense of drilling new geothermal wells. They have pointed out that these reservoirs are well understood, significantly cutting the risk of drilling new wells that could potentially fail.
Whereas this might sound novel, open loop systems that directly produce hot formation water for geothermal energy have been successfully tested in the U.S., China and Colombia. Water content in produced fluids typically increases In the late phases of oil and gas production, making it feasible to harness the energy in these brines for geothermal power. The scientists have proposed the use of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) where the natural fluid flow is insufficient.
Meanwhile, EU-funded GEORISK project has worked to record and mitigate risks associated with new geothermal projects in a bid to attract private investment into the industry. GEORISK is a large-scale collaboration between key stakeholders in the geothermal industry across Europe. The team has developed a new tool, which categorizes risks of proposed projects, including external hazards from natural or man-made factors, risks due to subsurface uncertainties, and potential technical issues. The project has helped European countries develop financial risk mitigation frameworks for geothermal projects, which are required under the new EU Renewable Energy Directive.
“It’s like solar: If you look at solar 20 years ago, nobody’s interested in solar because it costs too much. But as solar has grown, the cost has come down as it’s improved in scale. We’re kind of on the cusp of moving into the cost-effective range [for geothermal], just like we did with solar, over the next 20 years,” Roland Horne, a professor of earth sciences at Stanford University, told Yahoo News.
