Europe rents floating power plants for winter power supply
18.10.2022 - 11:55
European governments are in talks to lease floating power plants as the continent struggles to secure energy supplies this winter.
The installations may dock at European ports in December, Bloomberg reports.
“We are negotiating with four leading countries of the European Union,” said Zeynep Kharezi, chief commercial officer of the Istanbul-based company Karpowership, which owns a fleet of ships. “If we can overcome the bureaucracy, the documentation, then hopefully we will produce electricity at a very low price, complying with EU environmental standards.”
Floating power plants burn LNG, low-sulfur fuel oil, or biodiesel. Ships are mostly used as a source of electricity production in Africa and a number of developing countries. The EU chooses floating power plants because of energy security problems caused by the russian invasion of Ukraine.
Karpowership has eight vessels at its disposal that can generate up to two gigawatts of electricity — enough to power about 5 million homes.
The ships connect the on-board power plant with the local shore power plant. About a kilometer of cables are needed to start work. Turkish installations can supply electricity at 20 to 25 eurocents per kilowatt hour — roughly half of Germany’s market electricity rate next year.
