Oceans of Energy – North Sea Offshore Solar
The Dutch company “Oceans of Energy” has installed 50 kW worth of solar modules 15 km out of the coast of The Hague, and so far they have weathered 140 kmh storms and 10 meter waves.
Oceans of Energy has raised its ambition level and wants to roll out in 3 phases: 1, 10 and 100 MW resp. The big selling point of this technology is that no valuable and very scarce Dutch land resources need to be occupied with solar panels. The Dutch part of the North Sea has an area of 57,800 km. With an annual solar radiation of ca. 1000 kWh/m2 and a solar panel efficiency of 20%, this area would in theory be sufficient to generate an annual 11,560 TWh. Note that Dutch annual electricity consumption is 120 TWh or merely 1% of the total Dutch North Sea solar potential. And then there is that 85 GW of wind potential.
Who needs Saudi-Arabia if you have the Netherlands?
All-in-all, more than sufficient to power the entire EU. Not going to happen, of course. Cheaper energy in the form of hydrogen from for instance, Africa, will limit the economic energy harvesting potential of the North Sea. But to bridge a few decades of energy starvation due to geopolitical factors, like the Ukraine war? Who knows?
[offshore-energy.biz] – Dutch floating solar unit weathers through major North Sea storms intact
[offshore-energy.biz] – Oceans of Energy plans twentyfold scale-up of floating solar plant in North Sea
[offshore-energy.biz] – Oceans of Energy’s floating solar system weathers through all North Sea storms
[wikipedia.org] – Floating solar