Europe lines up floating power plants to bolster winter supplies

European governments are in talks to hire giant floating power plants as the continent scrambles for energy supplies this winter. 

So-called powerships burn liquefied natural gas, low-sulfur fuel oil or biodiesel and could be set to dock off European ports in December, according to Istanbul-based Karpowership, which owns a fleet of the vessels. 

“We are in discussions with four of the leading economies of the European Union,” Zeynep Harezi, chief commercial operations officer said in an interview. “If we can get over the bureaucracy, the documentation, then hopefully we will be generating electricity at a very low cost while within EU environmental regulations.”

Powerships have been used as a source of electricity generation in Africa and a host of other emerging economies. Europe’s pivot toward the fossil-fuel burning vessels is another sign of the urgent need to tap additional power sources this winter, as the continent faces multiple energy security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The European governments involved in the discussions have yet to decide whether to burn oil or LNG, Harezi said. Using low-sulfur fuel oil would be the latest example of energy consumers burning oil-based fuels in the face of elevated natural gas costs.

The deployment of power ships is potentially controversial though. In Germany, which is looking for alternative power sources as it phases out some nuclear provision, the economics and climate ministry is talking with Belgian company Exmar and the state government of Lower Saxony about the possibility of taking three oil-powered barges, according to a letter from the ministry to parliamentary conservatives.

The environmental group BUND, however, criticized the use of such fossil-fuel burning vessels, saying the case for them had not been made. 

Karpowership has eight ships available that can generate up to two gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about five million homes, it says. Its biggest ship has a capacity of 500 megawatts.  

The ships connect an onboard power station to a local one onshore, and require about a kilometer (0.6 mile) of cables to become operational. The company says the vessels can provide electricity for between 20 and 25 euro cents per kilowatt hour, about half of current market rates for next-year German power.