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The different types of oilrig are each suitable for only some methods
of energy generation due to their physical characteristics but in all cases
the mindset of the people running the drilling companies and of most of
the people working on the rigs would be the greatest obstacle to the generation
of power by alternative means.
Why? Renewables are the way of the future.
What? Know your enemy (or type of rig in this case).
How? This is my dream so I haven't worried about how.
The basic types of rig are production platform, "floater" (usually known as semi submersibles and drillships), FPSO (Floating Petroleum Storage Operation), and landrigs.
Production platform: Normally many wells are drilled then the platform operates for many years after removal of the drilling equipment (including the derrick or "mast" which could have carried a wind turbine) when the helideck and the top of the accommodation may be available for solar collectors and there is always wave energy available (but if the wave generators are not underneath the decks they could be hit by shipping, the workboats servicing the rig run into the rig but usually can't fit under the rig though some captains do try). Platforms usually flare off a lot of gas which is produced as a byproduct with oil (these flares vary erratically between roughly 5 and 100 metres in height but the heat given off can be phenomenal and the energy is obvious). They are in a fixed position for many years and pipe petroleum to shore so subsea cables could be run to supply power to shore. The platform is old technology and it's days are numbered, but many are still being built.
Floaters: These drill exploration and wells for the newly developed FPSO but they do always have a derrick a wind turbine could be mounted on (the turbine must never interfere with helicopter operations), solar collectors could be mounted where possible and wave generators are possible as for platforms. These rigs are mobile so no fixed cable to shore is possible for power delivery.
FPSO: This is not really a rig it is just an oiltanker anchored above one or more producing oilwells, so there are plenty of horizontal surfaces above the tanks for solar collectors, and they usually flare off gas like the platform, but there is no derrick that could carry a wind turbine, and the only contact with the sea are over the side where shipping could hit the generator. They are not connected to shore (they can be far from the shore) so a subsea cable would be difficult.
Landrigs: These are the most difficult for many reasons
one is that the rig itself is highly mobile and must be transported on
a few trucks but the prefabricated accommodation many work with could carry
some solar collectors but conditions and the people are primitive so they
would have to be very good collectors.
No radio emissions are allowable ever for safety reasons (explosive charges and sensitive electrical equipment is used so rigs are often under radio silence).
Keep open the skies for helicopter operations (this refers to all offshore rigs not landrigs and is both for safety reasons and due to all the workers being VERY keen to get off that lump of steel and concrete where they have been doing hard work 12 hours a day 7 days a week for a few weeks).
The sea on the side of rigs are open to ships so are hazardous (the workboats carrying freight to the rig do run into it, it's a big target so it's hard to miss).
Sending power to shore is often difficult (platforms can have a fixed subsea cable but the others are mobile so this would be impossible, microwave links would be possible but they shouldn't fry birds and helicopters like a big microwave oven).
Most horizontal surfaces can at times carry heavy loads such as helicopters, blowout preventers, freight containers and rubbish skips so they may not be available to carry solar collectors.
Offshore rigs are usually in deep water where tidal effects are limited
and usually move up and down with the tide.
The amount of energy available from Geothermal sources is estimated
to be anough to satisfy Australia's current energy requirements for 7,500
years. All countries have Geothermal energy available but Australia
is in many ways Geologically suitable due to having sedimentary rocks (such
as Sandstone and Shale which have low thermal conductivity) which are not
badly broken up by earth movement (as in most of the world) acting as a
blanket over Igneous and Metamorphic rock (the former is solidified from
molten rock and the latter was a pre-existing rock body partially melted
and resolidified). These Igneous and Metamorphic rocks are
heat reservoirs and also produce heat from radioactive decay.
Shown below is a map of Australian geothermal energy resources to 5,000m.
The oil industry could help a lot partly because it is an everyday occurrence
that wells are drilled at any vertical or horizontal angle with the well
changing horizontal and vertical direction nearly as required (they can
even be drilled at gentle upwards angles), and rocks are often fractured
by the oil company to allow the flow of fluid (this could be very important
as the normally impermeable rocks which may hold the thermal energy we
seek could have water pumped through them to remove their thermal energy).
a) drilling into permeable rock (such as Sandstone) above the intrusion which contains the heated water.
b) drilling into a fault (broken zone of rock) which carries hot water away from the intrusion (these are more likely than you may think because the act of injection of the rock often causes movement of the overlying rock which often causes fracturing of the rock).
c) drilling into permeable rock filled with hot water as could result from b) above.
d) drilling two (or more) wells into a cooling rock body
and using technology to crack the impermeable rock (intruded rock is almost
totally impermeable) in between these wells using technology developed
by the oil industry to do just this.
The conversion of this energy (generation of electricity) would
at first be via conventional mechanical generation but eventually Thermophotovoltaics
(no moving parts) may be useful, one trouble with this at the moment is
the operating temperature of thermophotovoltaic cells of 1,000 to 1,700
degrees but with time low temperature cells could be developed (for example
superconduction was in the past only possible near absolute zero but now
the temperature range is approaching ambient temperature).
2) Mulka (SA) - 20 kW is produced from a hot Artesian bore.
3) Portland (Vic) - hot water extracted from a bore has been heating more than 19,000 square metres of buildings for more than 15 years (there is a power hungry Aluminium smelter at Portland and a major powerline to Melbourne so there is ready access to markets and being near the sea cooling water for the energy generation plant is available).
4) Traralgon (Vic) - hot water from a bore is used in the
production of paper.
2) Otway Basin (SA, Vic & Tas) - This Geological basin holds over 160 years of Australia's current energy use (this 495,000 Petajoules is held in 7,500 cubic kilometers of rock) with the energy being mainly located near Ballarat in Victoria, Kingston S.E. in South Australia and Launceston in Tasmania (these are all on or near the cooling water of the sea and especially Ballarat is near the markets).
3) Muswellbrook (NSW) - a proposed 20 MW plant is planned
to tap the heat energy of 75 cubic kilometers of rock which is at over
225 degrees (this holds 5,000 Petajoules which Australia presently uses
in more than 1.5 years, being in the Hunter valley north of Sydney it is
near the markets of Southeastern Australia and quite near the cooling water
of the sea).
