Geocience skills have a place in the future. Geophysical & geotechnical data, interpretation will be required for identifying the best places & ways to install wind turbines.

1. Geoscience in
Offshore
Renewables
Farida Ismayilova

2. About myself
Farida Ismayilova
>3 years experience as Drilling Geohazards Specialist
Graduate of Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University
Master’s & Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering

3. Agenda
✓Evolution of geoscience
✓Energy Transition
✓Geoscience in CCUS
✓Geoscience in Offshore Renewables

4. The first half of XX century
The 1st well logging
Early seismology

5. Geoscience now
• 3D, 4D, hi-res seismic
(mainly for oil and gas)
• Use of automation &
artificial intelligence

6. Future geoscience
• Carbon Capture &
Underground Storage (CCUS)
• Offshore Wind Farms
(Renewables)

7. What is driving
the change?

8. • The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international
treaty on climate change.
• It was initially adopted by 196 parties in Paris -
effective since 2016.
• Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2,
preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-
industrial levels.
• The aim is reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon
as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by 2050.
Paris agreement

10. Energy business is changing - decarbonization
COST
ENERGY
produced
CO2
emission
COST
ENERGY
produced
Before Becoming
Note: in the future additional cost/tax will be implemented for amount of emissions

11. Energy transition
The Rapid Transition Scenario (Rapid) posits a
series of policy measures, led by a
significant increase in carbon prices.
The Net Zero Scenario (Net Zero) assumes that
the policy measures embodied in Rapid are
both added to and reinforced by significant shifts
in societal behavior and preferences.

12. Renewable energy through years
Exajoule = 1018
(1 quintillion) joules
Exajoules
per
year

13. Future geoscience
integration

14. Carbon Capture & Storage (not renewables)

15. CCUS requirements
• Demand – a nearby business producing a lot of greenhouse
gasses that is ready to pay for injection
• Government support – regulations, lower taxes to make it
profitable and attractive for investors
• Finding a reservoir with a seal on top to inject – good
parameters, away from highly-populated areas for safety
• Drilling wells to inject, predicting fluids behavior and
contacts through time
geoscience, drilling, completion, reservoir engineering

16. Geoscience in
Offshore renewables

17. Offshore wind is growing

18. Onshore vs offshore
Average capex costs in 2016-19 for :
• onshore wind farms - £1.61 million per MW,
• offshore wind - £4.49 million per MW (including transmission)
Traditionally onshore turbines have dominated the wind market,
with the first turbine constructed in the late 1800’s.
The first offshore wind project went into effect in the early 1990’s
near Denmark.
Denmark is receiving over 40 percent of their electricity from wind
and 75 percent of that comes from onshore turbines.

19. Advantages of Offshore Wind
• Doesn’t interfere with land use – housing, farming
• Offshore wind speeds are higher
• Wind direction varies less
• More efficient - less turbines provide the same energy as onshore ones

20. Disadvantages of Offshore wind
• Energy transmission to the land is expensive
• More wear & tear of turbines due to high wind speed
• Offshore turbines are harder to install & fix due to distance
• Potential noise pollution and threat to birds

21. Geoscience in offshore wind energy
• Geoscience in determining where to put wind farms
• Gas risk – no shallow gas below or near
• Slope stability
• Soil properties
Similar to assessments prior to platform installation

22. Disciplines involved
Understanding soil strength & behavior
• Geotechnical
Understanding shallow geology & risks
• Geophysics
• Geology
• Geohazards

23. Data for wind turbine
installation

24. Project & survey timeline
Bidding
Preparation
Detailed
Design
Ground
model
Updates
Conceptual Design
/ Basic Design
Geoscience
Campaigns
Geophysical
Preliminary
Campaign
Project
Stages /
Milestones Opportunity
Screening
Windfarm
concept
Project Development
Project
Construction
Windfarm
Operating
Geotechnical
Detailed Campaign
Desktop
Study V1 V4
Geotechnical
Preliminary
Campaign
V2
Geophysical Detailed
Campaign
V3
Assess Select Define Execute Operate
Geophysical
Monitoring
Geophysical
Inspections

25. Why so many surveys?
• Geohazard and Archaeological clearance for
permitting and safety of construction and
installation
• Lease Area
• Export Cable Routes
• Geotechnical soil properties for detailed
engineering and design of
• Offshore Wind Turbines
• Offshore Sub-Stations
• Inter-Array Cables
• Export Cables
• Development of Ground Model
• Defining baseline soil parameters &
seabed/subsurface conditions

26. Bathymetry
Bathymetry – using echosounder (sonar) to map seabed morphology. It
reveals slopes, pockmarks, seabed depressions, faulting reaching to
seabed & etc. It is fed into a ground model.

27. Bathymetry example
“Pockmarks” are deep depressions
in the sediments created by
escaping gas. It indicates presence of
shallow gas & can possess risk.
A trough is a linear structural
depression that extends laterally
over a distance.
Sometimes it represents fault
reaching to the surface which can
act as a conduit in case of gas
presence.

28. High-resolution seismic
Conventional seismic ~50Hz frequency used mainly for exploration that
allows imaging several kilometers depth. It won’t suit in case of wind
turbine installation feasibility studies as higher resolution is required.
High-resolution (HR) seismic ~120-200Hz frequency that allows resolving
5-15m thickness. Can be suitable for shallow depth analysis.
Ultra-high-resolution (UHR) ~600Hz frequency can resolve a few meters
thickness but is more expensive and not always necessary.
Note: Higher frequency, better resolutions but less depth coverage of imaging.

29. Conventional vs UHR

30. Shallow gas on seismic 1

31. Shallow gas on seismic 2

32. Geotechnical data: in-situ tests
Drilling geotechnical boreholes for in-situ testing and
taking core samples for laboratory tests.
During in-situ Cone Penetration Test (CPT) the forces on
the cone and the friction sleeve are measured.
Based on that undrained shear strength, relative density,
load bearing capacity are calculated.

33. Geotechnical data: lab tests
Soil samples are taken to the lab for thorough
analysis
For soil classification - defining moisture content,
specific gravity, particle distribution & etc
For determining the aggressiveness of groundwater
to concrete & steel structures - chemical analysis of
groundwater (pH value, sulphate content and
chloride content tests)

34. Soil strength and deformation
Unconfined compression strength (UCS) - determination of the
unconfined compressive strength of cohesive soil of the axial load.
Consolidation test (1D) - consolidation of soils are used to
estimate the magnitude and rate of settlement of a structure.
Consolidated undrained triaxial compression test (3D) -
determination of strength and stress-strain relationships of
cohesive soil. Used to predict how the material will behave in a
larger-scale geotechnical engineering applications.
An example would be to predict the stability of the soil on a slope.
Unconfined compression
strength (UCS)

35. Wind turbines are getting taller & heavier

36. Where would you put a
wind turbine? (geophysics)
• Away from shallow gas & pockmarks
• On a stable slope, not at the base of a
seabed slump
• In soils with sufficient soil strength to
withstand the weight

37. C o n c l u s i o n
Geoscience and Geophysical skills have a place in the future:
• Shallow depth analysis for Renewables – Offshore Wind
• Deep analysis for Carbon Capture & Underground Storage

38. Denmark Technical University –
• Wind energy
• Introduction to solar cells
• Organic Solar Cells - Theory and Practice
Open resources