Lessons learned in the oil and gas industry can be used in the renewables sector to help with the development of the offshore wind industry, according to GE Renewable Energy chief executive Jerome Pecresse.
“Sharing of technology and best practices between the two industries; especially as more renewables move offshore and into more challenging environments, is where the oil and gas companies’ expertise and capabilities can be harnessed,” he said.
Sharing knowledge between the oil and gas and renewables sectors will help to “shorten the development span for new concepts”, the CEO said.
The oil and gas industry has also developed expertise on compliance and safety standards on product design, manufacturing and installation that could be transferred to offshore wind.
Using good practices from the oil and gas industry can also help better inform stakeholder engagement and community relations, and “consequently facilitate accelerated business development” .
Pecresse also predicted that renewable energy is set to become the baseload power source in the next 10 to 20 years,
He said clean power is already “mainstream” and is likely to provide between 50% and 66% of new energy coming online in the future.
Innovation, hybrid technology and auction-based systems are helping to drive growth, as well as corporate demand for electricity from 100% renewable sources, he said.
Image: reNEWS
GE: ‘Oil & gas offers RE lessons’
By EBS