MS#01.10 Wind meets ocean: Joint assessment of atmospheric and oceanographic parameters throughout the life of an offshore wind project
S. YAHIAOUI¹, J. COLLINS²
¹ AKROCEAN|² The Crown Estate
Wind resource, metocean and extreme conditions
Wind resource and metocean assessments are essential to an offshore wind project, guiding key decisions from site selection through to decommissioning. By leveraging these assessments, stakeholders can optimize site design and energy output, ensure safety, and effectively manage risks throughout the project lifecycle.
In the early stages of an offshore wind project, wind resource assessment employs remote sensing devices, typically floating LiDARs, to determine estimates of the long-term site-specific wind climate. Accurate wind climate estimates, and quantification of their uncertainties, are essential for energy yield assessment and project financing, as well as engineering design, but standards and assessment methods are not always seen as keeping up with technology developments.
Metocean measurements and modelling are employed to understand wave properties, current patterns, and the likelihood of extreme weather events, which helps assess the overall viability of the site and design requirements for turbines and substructures. Furthermore, climate change projections would ideally be integrated into these assessments to predict long-term shifts in wind patterns, sea levels, and extreme weather, ensuring a site's viability over the entire project lifecycle, but the industry has not yet come to an agreed methodology.
During the design phase, understanding extreme wind and metocean events is critical for creating robust engineering designs, appropriate turbine selection, but derivation methods and approaches to uncertainties vary between organisation and between geographies.
Characterisation of atmospheric turbulence has been identified as a key area for ongoing development in both measurement technology and methods to derive design values.
As for the construction phase, wind and metocean data are essential for determining safe working conditions and optimal weather windows. Modelling and forecasting operating conditions during this phase is critical to manage risks associated with lifting and installing turbine components.
Once operational, forecasting and monitoring wind and wave variability become key for scheduling maintenance activities and assessing asset performance.
In the decommissioning phase, accurate weather forecasts are critical for safely dismantling and removing turbines and substructures.
This mini-symposium aims to highlight the roles of wind and metocean conditions assessments throughout the life cycle of an offshore wind project. Presentations can illustrate various research work, case studies or datasets relevant to the highlighted challenges, with preference given to abstracts that address current areas of uncertainty or lack of consensus in the industry.
We welcome presentations that focus on the integration of wind and metocean assessments into processes, typically site selection, design, and operations, highlighting applications of remote sensing, advanced modelling or innovative methodologies. We encourage contributions addressing uncertainty quantification and the incorporation of climate change projections into project planning. Case studies showcasing forecasting tools and models for construction, operations, and decommissioning, as well as emerging approaches to monitoring extreme weather and turbulence, are also encouraged.