Caribbean Island Starts Offshore Surveys with Plan for Floating Wind-to-Hydrogen Production

July 17, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

Fugro’s survey vessel Fugro Brasilis has arrived at the Port of Willemstad in Curaçao ahead of offshore surveys the company will perform as the Curaçao government is working on identifying areas for floating wind development.

The Fugro Brasilis survey vessel at sea — Photo: Fugro

The work, scheduled to start today (17 July) and take place until 29 July, follows a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the Curaçao government and the Dutch Minister for Climate and Energy signed this May and is one of the first steps towards Curaçao’s aims to enable green hydrogen production using wind energy and create export capacity for clean fuels.

The ultimate goal is for the Caribbean island to become a regional leader in wind energy-to-green hydrogen production, according to a press release from the Curaçao government, which says the basis for this is a study carried out by the Dutch organisation for applied scientific research TNO that found that Curaçao, due to its geographical location and weather conditions, has a unique opportunity for wind energy generation at maximum efficiency.

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The offshore investigations to be carried out by Fugro are part of the current initial phase of exploring the possibilities and feasibility, as well as preferred options.

The seabed survey, located within the borders of Curaçao’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), will collect preliminary data necessary to identify and delineate areas that are most suitable from a geophysical perspective to be considered as sites for the installation of floating wind turbines.