Companies including BP, Ørsted and Vattenfall collaborate with Carbon Trust on greening the windpower value chain
Eleven offshore wind developers are partnering with global climate consultancy The Carbon Trust to make future offshore wind more sustainable.
The 11 firms are BP, EnBW, Fred Olsen Seawind, Ørsted, Parkwind, RWE, Scottish Power Renewables, Shell, SSE Renewables, Total Energies and Vattenfall.
All of the them design, build and operate windfarms globally and collectively represent around a quarter of global installed capacity.
They will work in collaboration with the UK-headquartered Carbon Trust as part of the new Offshore Wind Sustainability Joint Industry Programme, which is intended to develop the first industry-backed methodology and guidance to measure and address the carbon emissions associated with offshore windfarms throughout their lifecycle.
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This will include emissions from the manufacturing of materials and installation of windfarms.
Jan Matthiesen, Director of Offshore Wind at the Carbon Trust said, global climate targets “cannot be met without stepping up renewable energy generation, and offshore wind is particularly crucial to the world’s transition away from fossil fuels”.
“Our experience working with the industry through various joint industry projects is proof that collaboration is key.
He added that “it’s time to turn our attention to supporting innovation and scaling up sustainably in order to create a more resilient and competitive industry”.
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The aim of the programme work is to help the global offshore wind industry scale as sustainably as possible.
A standardized methodology will ensure the scale of installation needed is delivered in a low carbon way and encourage comparability across developers and assets.
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Catrin Jung of Vattenfall said: “We want to accelerate fossil free living with the power of renewables.
“And within that we aim to be sustainable in everything we do, including the full value chain. How to achieve that? That is the challenge we are working on.”
As demand for renewable energy grows, the offshore wind industry needs to rapidly scale to meet increasing levels of ambition – however, this must be done in a sustainable way.
The Carbon Trust said that by building on the decarbonisation efforts at an individual windfarm level, “a collaborative industry effort will be key to creating a consistent approach to account for carbon impacts, increase transparency of supply chain emissions and accelerate engagement across the value chain”.
“This will support the delivery of the scale of installation needed, with the benefit of a strong understanding of lifecycle carbon emissions.”
Methodology for the programme is to be released for use across the industry by 2025.
Ingrid Reumert of Ørsted said: “As our industry prepares for a massive and necessary build out of offshore wind farms, we must also pay attention to driving down emissions from supply chains and operations.
“This common methodology will help us do that as well as increasing transparency for governments, investors and suppliers, and enabling comparability across developers and assets.”
