2,5-MW WINDMILL . The vertical axis winmill has blades and is 70 m in diameter .

After North Sea oil and gas are depleted , will power come from North Sea wind ? Could be , according to Dr. P.J. Musgrove of Reading University , England . In recent paper , he proposes that clusters of windmills in the shallow waters of the UK southern North Sea could yield power to be stored as compressed air in depleted gasfield strata .

Musgrove’s target area is about 40,000 sq. km of the North Sea east and south of Hull . This would be close to main energy use areas , has an annual mean wind speed of around 7,3 m/s , water depth of under 20 m and would not create aesthetic problems .

He says that windmills in clusters over 2% of the southern North Sea could provide more than 20% of Britain’s electricity needs . Approximately 800 sq . km would supply as much as 32% of average requirements although , as space is not at a premium , a larger separation between mills would be better .

Surplus wind energy could be stored in depleted gas strata as compressed air until need . The strata are relatively hot ( Ocean Industry , September 1976 , page 270 ) about 120 ° C. When air is compressed , most of the input energy is in the form of heat . In the compression ratio were suitably arranged , heat loss would be small .

Musgrove attempts " a crude estimate " of overall cost . He puts it at £505/kW and notes that the 2,4 GW nucler power plant ordered in New York State Last July worked out at £830/kW.

A basic windmill , according to U.S. studies cited Musgrove , has a production cost of around £280kW . He estimates that deploying such mills would add £100/kW , storage costing an equal sum . Submarine tranmission of power to the mainland , about 50 km away , would coast £25/kW .

MARCH 1977 OCEAN INDUSTRY

When Sunderland Shipbuilders Ltd. decided to renovate its historic Pallion yard , which has been building ships at the same site on the Wear River on England’s northeast coast since 1857 , company officials decided to pull stops and erest the world’s largest covered shipyard .

From the earliest planning stages , Sunderland officials decided to construct the largest assembky dock within one vast building . One roof enclosed virtually all steel processing . sub and main-assembly areas , stores, workshops and other services and facilities required to handle seagoing vessels from keel-laying to christening .

Although an expensive venture , Sunderland officials cite many advantages in the " ships factory " under a single roof ;


Constant working environment

Convered dock

Access to stores , workshops , and
other frequently used faclities .

The assembly dock is wide by conventional standards — measuring 50x181 m — making it suitable for the fabrication of two 35,000 - ton ships or four 15,000 — tonn vessels .

First find it . Then find us .

We’ve been involved in Britain’s hydrocarbon industry since the very first find . Offshore and onshore , we’ve become practically indispensible . We build offshore structures , substructures and production modules , pressure vesses and heat exchangers , storage tanks and spheres for crude oil and gas (we suppmied the tankage at every terminal functioning in Scotland ) . We also rent cranes , compressors and weiding plant and stock and distribute ingersoll Rand air power plant and other pneumatic equipment . So when you’ve found the oil , or gas that’s when yoo’il find us useful .

Motherwell Bridge

A part to play at every stage .