COPENHAGEN, Denmark – While the wind industry is striving to eliminate hydrocarbons an energy source, thus cutting CO2 emissions, wind turbines still use hydrocarbons as a lubricant. With that in mind, Royal Dutch Shell announced on 26 November at WindEurope Offshore 2019 in Copenhagen its gearbox oil for wind turbines, Shell Omala S5 Wind 320, is now carbon neutral

“The whole wind industry is about eliminating hydrocarbons a power source but we’re still using hydrocarbons as a lubricant within this area,” Richard Tucker, Shell’s general manager for B2B Lubricants and Supply Chain Technology, told New Europe in an interview in Copenhagen on 26 November. “We’ve tried to reduce the amount by particularly by extending the life of the lubricants. So, the product we’re talking about comes with a 10-year life warranty. A few years that would have been three, five, maybe seven years, now it’s 10 so there is less hydrocarbons through the turbine. The final step – because we can’t go any further just yet – is to offset that by using some nature-based solutions to compensate for the lifecycle CO2 emissions for the product so that’s the piece of news we’re announcing today,” Tucker added.

https://www.neweurope.eu/article/shell-offsets-co2-emissions-from-lubricant-for-wind-turbines/