Two outfits, one in Germany and one in the US, are chasing a goal of supplying long-term subsea power in remote locations, via fuel cells, to users including oceanographic observatories to underwater vehicles. Elaine Maslin takes a look.Long term operation of subsea equipment or instruments in remote locations poses something of a challenge. While battery technology has improved vastly, it鈥檚 still not sufficient for long term deployments鈥
Baker Hughes, Mocean Energy and Verlume have signed a triparty memorandum of understanding (MoU) to identify and discuss potential opportunities for collaboration on integrated wave energy and subsea energy storage solutions for the emerging subsea clean energy market鈥
Taking the power to where you want it is another option 鈥 perhaps not for compression or pumping system, but potentially for monitoring, inspection, and even intervention systems, such as resident robotics concepts.It鈥檚 an idea some have been looking at鈥
Ten years ago, a future where subsea fields and their power-hungry process equipment could be fully electrified, enabling long step-outs to tap remote reserves with lean new infrastructure architectures, lit the fuse for a spate of investment in subsea power distribution鈥
