ScottishPower Renewables has launched a pilot project to reduce its carbon emissions by using waste vegetable oil to help power crew transfer vessels (CTVs) working on the East Anglia ONE wind farm offshore the UK.
The renewable vessel fuel, HVO30 – made from 30 per cent hydrogenated vegetable oil and a marine gas oil fuel blend – will be used to power two CTVs provided by Great Yarmouth-based NR Marine Services.
Compared to standard marine gas oil, HVO30 is predicted to result in around a 30 per cent reduction in equivalent CO² emissions from the two vessels.
The renewable fuel is created from 100 per cent waste vegetable oils and holds a proof of sustainability certificate from the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) system.
”We are really pleased to be paving the way with reducing vessel emissions on two of our vessels, NR Cougar and NR Jaguar,” Owen Nutt , Director of NR Marine Services, which is operating crew transfer vessels on East Anglia ONE as part of a contract with Turner Iceni, said.
”East Anglia ONE is an important project for us and it’s great to see ScottishPower Renewables committing to purchase the HVO30 fuel in a bid to further reduce carbon emissions. We are looking forward to analysing the performance of the new fuel and hopefully rolling it out to the entire fleet in the future.”
The 714 MW East Anglia ONE wind farm is located 43 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk.
The GBP 2.5 billion project features 102 Siemens Gamesa 7 MW offshore wind turbines and is a joint venture between ScottishPower Renewables and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG).
”As part of the drive to get to Net Zero, we’ve been working with suppliers across our East Anglia ONE windfarm to reduce CO² emissions throughout the project,” ScottishPower Renewables’ East Anglia ONE Project Director, Charlie Jordan , said.
”Developing low emission vessels for use in operational windfarms is a real challenge for the industry and we’re proud to be leading the way and taking on this challenge to help us operate in a cleaner and greener way. Our ambition is to continually work with our supply chain to find ways of reducing our environmental impact across our projects. We’re really pleased to be working with NR Marine Services to deliver this pilot project, which is an exciting milestone on that journey.”