Eni Turns Oil Platforms into Wave Power Generators

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

Engineers convert old oil rigs into wave energy sites

I applaud everything that reduces waste of any sort.  Well done, Eni.

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

Smart way to avoid decom costs as well. 

 

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

It certainly sounds like a win-win concept.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

On 4/3/2019 at 4:55 PM, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

Smart way to avoid decom costs as well. 

Yep.  Necessity is the mother of invention.

Or more accurately and succinctly: 

Necessity is a Mother.

In this case, the necessity of cutting down the enormous costs of decomissioning offshore oil & gas platforms produced this wonderful new idea.  Win - Win solution.

(Well, at least until the Wave Generator site needs to be decommissioned 30 years from now, but we can kick that decommissioning can down the road for a few decades...)

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

I didn't see alot of detail in the article and question how anything that depends on wave action would be efficient in varying sea states. Much like solar is not applicable in many areas due to weather, seasons and light density.

Furthermore, anything depending on the movement of seawater will be operating in an unfriendly environment not only due to corrossion but sealife as well (barnacles and so forth).

Tom has a valid point. These structures were designed with a 'hull life', this seems like an effort to kick the decommissioning can down the road. It will have to happen at some point and until then these derelict structures remain hazards to navigation.

I do not like waste as well, especially money on projects simply to keep the Green Wolf from the door and to appear politically correct. I'd rather see money spent on cleaning up the 'trash islands' in our oceans with technology available now. But out of sight is out of mind and does not provide a warm, fuzzy feeling.

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

16 hours ago, mthebold said:

If they're able to deploy this on existing oil platforms, it could dramatically reduce fuel costs.  This is particularly noteworthy because:
1)  Diesel engines meeting variable demands are inefficient.
2)  Refueling offshore platforms is particularly expensive. 

Electrification of offshore platforms is on-going through existing tech and completely unsubsidized https://www.ogj.com/articles/2018/08/floating-wind-power-studied-for-platforms.html 

For new fields electrification is a lot of times build into the design - look at Equinors giant Johan Sverdrup field. 

As mentioned - decommissioning is expect to cost the offshore industry massive amounts of money. In the UK alone the decom market is etimated to be in excess of USD 70 billion. Re-using old platform is sort of a natural subsidy as it avoids decom cost plus the green profile makes it an easy sell to authorities. 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Rasmus Jorgensen