The Roads to Carbon Neutral - Episode 7

Changing Winds

The Roads to Carbon Neutral

The third season of The Roads to Carbon Neutral program, in partnership with CNBC Catalyst, shares an inspiring and optimistic view of TotalEnergies’ role in our sustainable future globally through powerful, human-led and on-the-ground stories.

Throughout the series' eight episodes, discover the solutions and innovations making the transition to low-carbon energy a reality and helping us achieve a carbon-neutral future.

For this seventh episode, we are heading to Scotland and the North Sea to discover the Seagreen offshore wind farm. Set sail with Julia Rose to find out how TotalEnergies is transforming wind into power.

Julia Rose, Head of Development TotalEnergies, Offshore Wind UK

Here in Scotland, you cannot deny the mighty force of the wind. And if you go out to sea, the wind blows even stronger. So if you want to harvest wind and wind energy, that's where you must go. In TotalEnergies, we've been working in the offshore territory for many, many years, and there's now an opportunity to take these skills into offshore wind, building the basis for a carbon neutral future.

I've been coming up to Scotland quite frequently for work since I started in my role, and it's a very beautiful place to work. One should add that here in Scotland the weather conditions can be quite rough, but that's also the reason we're here. The UK in general obviously has a big benefit in terms of offshore wind. It's an island and it's got a lot of coastline. Wind speeds are typically higher on the sea than they are on the land simply because there are less obstructions and the flat sea essentially acts as an accelerator.

We can already see a lot of investment in offshore wind in the UK and in Scotland. UK is second only to China in terms of installed capacity of offshore wind. In fact, I think it was earlier this year that there was more electricity produced by wind power than by gas, for the very first time.

My career started in conventional power generation. I spent the first ten years or so working on gas and steam fired power plants. There’s a lot of complexity to these projects. When there was an opportunity to take these skills I had learned and bring them across into the renewables industry and specifically offshore wind, I jumped on to it.

TotalEnergies have many, many years of experience working in the oil and gas space, designing, building and operating big projects and facilities in this harsh offshore environment. Just over three years ago, TotalEnergies invested into the Seagreen project, together with our partners from SSE Renewables. Seagreen is around 27 kilometres off the coast of Scotland. It's now Scotland's largest offshore wind farm, with a total of 114 turbines. As of this year, Seagreen is fully operational and can supply up to 1.6 million households in Scotland with green electricity. So that's around two thirds of all households in Scotland. The scale of these projects is extraordinary. Developing, building, and operating an offshore wind farm is quite a feat and it takes a diverse team of specialists to come together to make it happen.

Michelle Aitken, Head of HSE TotalEnergies, Offshore Wind UK

I grew up in Norway, so I grew up right next to the sea. My parents both worked in offshore oil and gas, so I just naturally followed in that direction. And then two years ago, I made the jump into offshore wind, and it's been the best decision I ever made. Offshore wind is still a relatively new industry, so we're essentially building it from the ground up and being able to use our past background and experience to do that in a safe and responsible manner is quite an exciting project to be part of.

Martin Mciver, Operations Manager TotalEnergies, Offshore Wind UK

So, I transitioned into offshore wind at the start of this year, just as the Seagreen project was ramping up. I was previously ten years oil and gas working in the North Sea. It’s a very harsh environment, so we need to make sure that the foundations and the turbines are able to withstand everything the North Sea can throw at it, in the height of winter. We've looked at the design and we're at the forefront of the industry.

Julia Rose, Head of Development TotalEnergies, Offshore Wind UK

We're only on the very first steps of this journey. And there's estimates that in order to reach net zero in the future, we'd have to build another 100,000 offshore wind turbines. Offshore wind has very rapidly grown to be one of the leading renewable technologies, and rightly so. It's pretty much an unlimited source of renewable power, which is absolutely instrumental to move us into a lower carbon, more sustainable future.

Offshore wind power, a sector with promising future prospects for TotalEnergies

Wind power – especially offshore wind power – is a low-carbon and naturally renewable solution, meaning that it has a particularly bright future for driving the energy transition.

TotalEnergies is harnessing its long-standing and recognized expertise in managing major offshore projects to ramp up its ventures in this sector. Today, we are one of the key players in offshore wind power.

Since 2020, we have been stepping up our investments in offshore wind power, mainly across Europe (Germany, United Kingdom and France), North America (USA) and Asia (South Korea and Taiwan). We are developing a portfolio of projects with a total capacity of over 13 GW, most of which are fixed-bottom installations.

Offshore wind has very rapidly grown to be one of the leading renewable technologies, and rightly so. It's pretty much an unlimited source of renewable power, which is absolutely instrumental to move us into a lower carbon, more sustainable future.
Julia Rose Head of Development TotalEnergies, Offshore Wind UK

Seagreen, our largest offshore wind farm in the North Sea

Located 27 km off the coast of Angus, Seagreen is currently Scotland's largest offshore wind farm and the world's deepest fixed-bottom wind farm, since it has been developed in 59 meters of water depth. All the turbines have been commissioned since October 2023, making Seagreen our first operational offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

Swept by gale-force winds, the North Sea is recognized as one of the most dynamic regions in the world for developing offshore wind activities. The development of offshore wind projects is one of the main ways for Scotland to lead its energy transition plans and achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2045*. Ultimately, Seagreen will prevent over 2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

* Source: https://www.gov.scot/policies/climate-change/

Seagreen, the cornerstone of our development in offshore wind power

  • 114
    turbines with a height up to 204 meters at the tip of the blade and a diameter of 164 meters
  • 1.1 GW

    electricity production capacity of the wind farm

  • > 1.6 million

    homes can be powered by the Seagreen wind farm

In TotalEnergies, we've been working in the offshore territory for many years, and there's now an opportunity to take these skills into offshore wind, building the basis for a carbon neutral future […] The scale of these projects is extraordinary. Developing, building and operating an offshore wind farm is quite a feat and it takes a diverse team of specialists to come together to make it happen.
Julia Rose Head of Development TotalEnergies, Offshore Wind UK

The Roads to Carbon Neutral

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