Energy Islands, from the Right Angle

1- Going Offshore:

Offshore wind energy generation is more efficient than on land, to harness it you’d have to follow the wind. Ocean water currents offer a much higher energy density, at a stable rate, the technology is progressing, to harness you’d have to follow the currents.

To make Hydrogen Green, sea water reverse osmosis and electrolysis equipment have to be close to an energy source, from here the idea of Energy Islands begins.

 2-Locations:

Energy Islands should be near the winds, waves and currents. The Baltic Sea average depth is 50 m, the North Sea 90 m, the Mediterranean Sea 1,500 m, the Atlantic Ocean 3,600 m.

3-Requirements:

Energy Islands should be accessible all year long. Offshore rigs personnel have to go through extensive safety training to be allowed to make the trip by Helicopter or by Offshore Support Vessels, both ways are expensive and at high risk.

Energy Islands should cater for additional space when an Wind Farm expands; and permit ergonomic maintenance and replacement of equipment without the use of heavy lift Floating Marine Cranes and Floating Docks.

 4-Logistics:

Energy Islands service and operations teams may range from dozens to hundreds. This team require fresh water supply, food supply, cold service water, hot service water, wastewater disposal, solid waste disposal and regular rotation. Offshore supply and retrieval trips made by Offshore Supply Vessels is dangerous and expensive in high seas.

5-Backfilling:

Supposing a nation wishes to build an Energy Island by backfilling into the sea within its economic water zone; the currents within this sea would have to be studied not to alter direction and affect neighboring nations, the sediments from the backfilling process would be carried to undesirable locations within the nation shoreline, or to neighboring shoreline, affecting marine fauna and flora. A thorough Environmental Impact Assessment should be endorsed by all nation stakeholders.

Assuming an EIA is approved, lets look at the backfilling process on a sandy bed at 50 m seawater depth. If the surface footprint of the island is to be 500m x 500m, the scour protection measures, whatever the method used, would have a footprint of around 600m x 600m at sea bed level. The offshore contracting operations would have to be carried out within the yearly calm season, if the entire operation, or the milestone target construction is not achieved within the first season, the sea would destroy and remove most of it before the next season.

 After completion, if a structural failure occurs, under rough sea conditions, repairs would have to wait till the calm season, at the risk of further uncontrollable damage.

Once such Energy Island is completed, installing equipment on top would follow any port procedures; if certain components need to be replaced, they would have to be lifted and transported onto a vessel.

While this enormous offshore marine contracting job maybe concluded at 50m depth, will let the reader imagine the 90m or 1,500m sea depth scenario feasibility.

 6-Floating Energy Island:

A Floating Island is fabricated in a shipyard, launched to sea, tugged to the desired location, and anchored. The process is carried in a controlled environment, irrespective of sea state and sea depth.

While many Floating Island solutions are marketed, and most developers submitted their design to the UN Habitat in 2018 in a New York meeting, none of their literature is conclusive, most of it is at conceptual level.

The only solution that passed Two Marine Societies design approval by Bureau Veritas (France) in 2005 and International Naval Survey Bureau (Greece) in 2009, and a thorough Marine Society design, engineering, procurement and fabrication survey by INSB from 2009 till 2015 is the one made by Dr. Abdullah Daou, the founder of Beirut International Marine Industry and Commerce.

Beirut International’s Floating Island first prototype was made in 1997, at a scale of 1:10 measuring 4m x 4m, was extensively tested in a make shift water basin, with better than expected stability results under high simulated waves condition.

 In 2009 the fabrication of the first Floating Island made by Beirut International started in Lebanon. The substructure base 48m wide, by 76m long, 9m deep and weighing around 4,000 tons was being assembled in Tripoli Shipyard, while structural components where being fabricated in three other workshops in Lebanon by a team of 431 local technicians and engineers.

While the fate of this structure was unfortunate, Ninety-Eight Million US Dollars were invested in the research, development and fabrication; a 70% completion rate was achieved, almost all drawings approved and stamped by INSB meeting SOLAS and other marine regulations.

The learning curve is priceless. The technology is ready, far ahead of any contender. True, a full-scale prototype is yet to be made again and tested.

 7-Pros:

A Floating Energy Island is modular, making it scalable to meet any Offshore Wind Farm expansion. If maintenance is requires, a module can be detached, tugged to a shipyard then re-connected.

The substructure of a Floating Energy Island is transparent to the sea, making it an artificial coral reef for marine life, and simultaneously providing anchoring points to install Water Current Energy makers.

The waves are absorbed and damped by the Floating Energy Island, creating a calm water area at the rear port for Vessel to approach and dock at ease, allowing for safe and friendly access.

Being a generator of Hydrogen, and having a large underwater space, it is an ideal location to develop sustainable fisheries, creating an additional export income.

Solid waste composting and wastewater treatment available technologies can make some agriculture a sustainable alternative to waste disposal.

The Hydrogen process being noiseless, and clean; a Yacht Club can be safe haven for yachts sailing across seas and oceans.

8-Cons:

Beirut International claims are yet to be tested.

9-Joint Venture:

The Hydrogen Environment is relatively new.

Stakeholders include: Shipping Companies, Energy Companies, Ports Logistics, Telecommunication, Reverse Osmosis Water Makers, Electroliser Makers, Wind Turbine makers, Wave Energy Makers, Current Energy Makers, Shipyards, Marine Offshore Contractors, Hydrogen Storage Solution Makers, Inverters, Controls, Aquaponics, Wastewater Treatment, Solid Waste Treatment…

While some stakeholders are more advanced then the other, some at prototyping stage, other at maturity; a Floating Energy Island success needs their close collaboration. A fresh firm in the Legal field is trying to advise stakeholders to join efforts and Joint Venture to make such infrastructure and energy concepts a needed reality to meet a Marine Decarbonization.

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