France-based energy firm TotalEnergies is the latest company to invest in the Renewables for Subsea Power (RSP) project, an initiative that seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of using wave power to decarbonise marine structures like oil and gas platforms.
The current phase of the £2 million scheme began in 2021, combining a wave energy converter with a battery storage system to mitigate intermittency issues. Edinburgh-based Mocean Energy supplied the former, while Verlume of Aberdeen built the latter to withstand the challenging subsea conditions. The project is now fully operational.
TotalEnergies, which also makes the Total coolant and lubricant range, will now be able to provide input to the project and suggest a location for a feasibility assessment of whether the RSP technology will be suitable. It will also have access to the project’s results and data.
Mocean Energy’s commercial director, Ian Crossland, pointed out that TotalEnergies is a multiple-energy company with a global reach, adding:
“…this new investment underscores the international interest in the potential of our combined technologies. TotalEnergies has a long history in Scotland and an incredible track record in offshore operations, and their experience will be extremely valuable as we begin to commercialise our Blue Star product line.”
The manager for technology, innovation and data at TotalEnergies, Dave MacKinnon, said his company’s participation in the project demonstrates the importance it ascribes to pursuing new technologies for decarbonisation. The RSP technology promises an attractive alternative to using umbilical cables, which can take a long time to install and be relatively carbon intensive.
