Shell joins Renewables for Subsea Power project
Power Engineering International
Posted on: 5 February 2024
Shell has joined the Renewables for Subsea Power project| providing power to subsea equipment with wave power and subsea energy storage.
Energy company Shell has become a partner in the Renewables for Subsea Power (RSP) initiative, a UK project currently providing power to subsea equipment with a combination of wave power and subsea energy storage.
Shell's investment in the project comes through the Shell Technology – Marine Renewable Program, a research and development group focused on developing marine renewable energy technologies.
The £2 million ($2.5 million) project, approaching its one-year mark in the water, is located 5km east of Orkney in Scotland.
The project saw Mocean Energy's Blue X wave energy converter connected with the Halo underwater battery storage system created by Verlume.
Shell will now collaborate with Mocean Energy and Verlume, as well as other industry players including Baker Hughes, Serica Energy, Harbour Energy, Transmark Subsea, PTTEP, TotalEnergies, and the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC).
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Participation in the RSP project grants Shell access to all data and results from the ongoing test programme, along with a feasibility assessment for deploying RSP technology at a location of their choosing.
This deployment in Orkney marks the third phase of the Renewables for Subsea Power project. In 2021, the consortium invested £1.6 million ($2 million) in phase two, which successfully integrated core technologies in an onshore test environment at Verlume’s operations facility in Aberdeen.
Mocean Energy's Blue X prototype underwent at-sea testing in 2021 at the European Marine Energy Centre’s Scapa Flow test site in Orkney, where the prototype generated first power and gathered crucial data on machine performance and operation.
Listen to this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast with Neil Kermode to learn more about the European Marine Energy Centre and the cutting-edge technology making waves off the Orkney coast.
