An Interview with Uchenna Ibe
Uchenna Ibe is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 12 years of experience working on engineering projects. He originally worked on Oil & Gas projects off the coast of West Africa and in the North Sea, before transitioning to the clean energy & renewables sector. He is now a Senior Project Manager for Iberdrola / Scottish Power Renewables working on offshore wind projects in the UK and Europe. Uchenna is also very knowledgeable in emerging Hydrogen technologies, especially on the potential of integrating offshore wind projects and green Hydrogen production. He has also completed an MBA from the Imperial College Business School London.
Ed Wilson caught up with Uchenna before he joins our panel of speakers at our upcoming event: Engineering for the Energy Transition.
4th March. 2-4pm GMT. Register HERE.
Ed Wilson: How did you get into engineering?
Uchenna Ibe: “I always wanted to be an engineer and that was why I chose to study engineering at university. Another motivation for studying engineering was the fact that I wanted to work in the Oil & Gas industry. Following graduation from the university, I went on to work in the Oil & Gas industry for a while before transitioning to the Renewables sector 8 years ago.”
Is it an easy transition to make from oil and gas to renewables?
“It is definitely doable but there are a few things to consider in order to facilitate the process. First, understand the engineering discipline you belong to and discover the differences and similarities in Oil&Gas and Renewables as regards your discipline. In most cases, there are more similarities than differences. For example, having a background in designing structures, mechanical systems and project management helped to make my transition a lot easier because requirements for these items are significantly similar in both sectors.
The only major difference, or one of the major differences, is the fact that Oil & Gas assets are mainly designed for high-pressure process systems, and designers are more concerned about pressure containment, whereas for Offshore Wind Industry, for example, assets are designed for high-voltage electrical systems and as such, there is a high level of emphasis on electrical safety, amongst numerous other considerations of course.
So, in summary, I think it’s pretty much easy to make the transition. There is a high level of synergy between the two industries. I think the Offshore Wind industry, for example, has a lot to learn from the Oil & Gas industry, and I guess that explains why a significant percentage of current offshore wind engineers have a background in the Oil & Gas industry.”
What do you consider to be the biggest engineering challenges on the horizon for offshore wind?
“I think one of the big challenges now is designing cost-effective solutions to unlock wind energy potentials at deepwater locations farther away from the shore. These are locations with great advantages for wind energy generation, including high-speed wind flowing steadily for most of the year. Harnessing resources at these locations, which usually have water depth beyond 60m, will require significant engineering efforts in designing both structural foundations and transmission infrastructure. This is where floating technology and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission technology will respectively play important roles.
Currently, most of the operational offshore wind farms and those under construction are predominantly based on fixed foundations and High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) transmission technology because most of the project sites are within 50m water depth and are located closer to shore.
So, going farther offshore in deeper water, the industry will need engineer commercial floating solutions that are also adaptable to the increasing turbine sizes.”
What are the engineering challenges you are working on in your current role?
“Designing and constructing technically acceptable assets that do not only satisfy all safety, environmental, legal, codes, etc. requirements, but that are also cost-competitive. If you know about the CfD (Contracts for Difference) auctions in the UK, you would know that one of the important features of the process is driving cost down. So, projects must be very cost-competitive to win contracts.”
You have also worked on offshore Hydrogen generation technologies. Could you explain why people might want to make hydrogen and why would you produce it offshore?
“Energy transition more or less has to do with the electrification of things like transport, heating, etc. with electricity generated from clean renewable sources. However, there are some heavy polluters that might be difficult to electrify such as heavy industries and industrial processes. These are where people believe that hydrogen could be useful. Currently, some of these industries already use hydrogen, but hydrogen produced from fossil fuels in processes that involve emissions. Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis using clean renewable electricity.
Why offshore? There are several advantages of producing hydrogen offshore; For example, seawater is readily available, there are enormous wind resources to produce the needed electricity, and incorporating hydrogen production in offshore wind projects, could help improve the overall project economics. Another reason is the fact that some existing oil & gas infrastructure, e.g. platforms, pipelines, etc. could be repurposed for hydrogen production and transportation.”
I didn’t realise that it would use existing rigs, that is really interesting, I thought it would be tagged onto new wind turbines, but using the platforms already out there is a great idea.
“One of the approaches that could be considered is incorporating the electrolyser on the individual turbines, but another approach could be to locate the electrolyser on the offshore platform. So, your thoughts are also correct.”
Offshore wind looks like it will be the basis of renewable generation in the future. How much of our electricity generation do you think it would be possible to have as renewable by 2050?
“If you look at data from places like the Gov.uk and other websites, you will realise that current renewables capacity in the UK from different technologies is approaching 50GW if not already up to that, of which offshore wind contributes well over 20%. Recently UK government announced its ambition to deliver up to 40GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
So, I personally believe that offshore wind has the potential to deliver well over 50% of total renewables output by 2050, but again, this will require engineering and innovation efforts to harness abundant resources further offshore in deep water, to unlock the full potential of offshore wind energy.”
Thank you very much, I look forward to hearing more from you at our event.
4th March. 2-4pm GMT. Register HERE.