Commodity Online
And you thought you can hunt only for exotic marine organisms and fossil fuels in the deep sea? You are mistaken.—there is a huge untapped potential for wind energy in deep sea. Experiments are on in Australia, England and in some other countries to extract this clean energy.

In two years, the world's first floating wind turbine could be up and running. Siemens has teamed up with with a Norwegian energy group last year  to try to generate electricity in the middle of the North Sea.

UK-based Ramco Energy Plc with two decades of experience in oil and natural gas has now floated a new subsidiary called SeaEnergy Renewables Ltd with an 88 percent stake, with the objective to develop and manage deep water (20-50 mn) wind farms.

Their track record?
Ramco team through their Beatrice Wind Farm Development project for Talisman Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy have the following achievements to their credit. They developed the concept of SeaEnergy.

• The first ever use of the world’s largest wind turbine (5MW) offshore.
• The first ever use a “jacket” subsea structure for an offshore wind turbine
• The first ever deployment of a wind turbine in deepwater (45 metres)
• The first ever assembly of a turbine, tower, rotor, and blades onshore for installation in one piece offshore

SeaEnergy has been created to exploit the global opportunities for large scale offshore wind farm development. SeaEnergy has assembled a leading offshore wind farm development team; which will now, with Ramco’s support, bring their combined extensive offshore expertise to the development of deep water offshore wind farms.

This market is growing significantly with the wind industry growing at 10-15 per cent. globally, and new aggressive renewable energy targets mandated across the EU, according to Ramco group.

SeaEnergy has already identified a number of potential opportunities which the team are looking to develop, initially these are expected to be in the EU.

Steve Remp, Chairman of Ramco, said: “I have been searching for the right entry point to the marine renewables business since first realising the enormous future potential that this industry has. With the Beatrice wind farm team in place, I believe SeaEnergy has the key to start to unlock that potential.”

There is a real opportunity for Scotland to capture a lead in offshore wind technology in much the same way that it has in the offshore oil and gas industry. There is no reason why the growth in offshore wind can’t pick up the slack as offshore oil and gas declines in the years ahead, Steve Remp added.

“This is a growing and vital industry. In a world with $130+ oil and real international ressures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the stage is set for renewables to be a crucial element of the energy mix in the 21st Century," Joel Staadecker, SeaEnergy CEO commented.

The Beatrice Wind Farm
The Beatrice Wind Farm, the world’s first deepwater (water depths >30 meters) wind farm, involved the installation of the two largest wind turbines ever deployed in offshore waters (5MW each). The wind farm is located in the Moray Firth, 25km off the east coast of Scotland in water depths up to 45 metres.

The Beatrice Wind Farm was undertaken as a "demonstrator" project with sponsorship support from the European Union "DOWNVInD" research program as well as backing from the British and Scottish governments. In addition to being the first deployment of the world’s largest wind turbines offshore in the deepest water, the project also involved the first ever use of a "jacket" subsea structure to support the turbine installations, and was the first offshore project to involve full assembly of the turbine, tower, rotor and blades onshore for installation as a single piece offshore.