The Earlham and Orwell concept has commenced its assessment phase for a ‘gas-to-wire’ offshore gas power station and data centre coupled to carbon capture.

Development company Orcadian notes that the high carbon dioxide content of Earlham gas would make a conventional pipeline unattractive; instead, generating power at the field, capturing the carbon dioxide and reinjecting it into the reservoir could provide a neat and contained method to power energy-hungry centres.

The concept is intended to create a new customer for the power generated from the field. If developed, the Orcadian believe this project could be among the first offshore data centres of scale in the UK.

Orcadian is establishing a new company called Gigagrid to incubate this project, and the gas-fired power station is planned to be equipped with carbon dioxide sequestration systems. A 200MW (IT load) data centre hall, likely located on a dedicated jacket, would be constructed next to the power station. Captured carbon dioxide would then be re-injected into the Earlham reservoir to provide pressure support.

Steve Brown, Orcadian CEO, said: “Earlham could be among the first gas fields on the UKCS to be dedicated to a facility designed to capture the substantial majority of the emitted carbon dioxide for reinjection underground. Scope 3 emissions are expected to be less than 10 per cent of a conventional gas development which supplies an unabated power station. This project is one which we believe supports the Government’s vision of a clean UK power system in 2030, whilst also delivering on the Government’s energy security goals and crucially enabling the construction of a gigascale data centre.”

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