Coupled Ocean Wave-Atmosphere Models for Offshore Wind Energy Applications

Technical Report · Fri May 28 04:00:00 EDT 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1829093· OSTI ID:1829093

Pringle, William J. ^[1]; Kotamarthi, Veerabhadra R. ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Coupling ocean wave models to mesoscale atmospheric models is necessary to represent the effect of waves on wind turbine hub-height winds. In this report we provide a review of the most widely used ocean waves models and the phased-averaged spectral wave modeling paradigm that they are based on. Methodologies used to couple these wave models to mesoscale atmospheric models are described along with details of existing coupled modeling systems. We summarize impacts on offshore wind resource assessments that have been investigated with such coupled modeling systems to-date. Specifically, coupling in the North and Baltic Seas was shown to have a small negative effect on the offshore wind energy resource at weak-to-moderate wind speeds, with little impact at higher wind speeds. Finally, limitations of these existing coupled modeling systems and impact assessments are discussed, including examples of and the potential for improved parameterizations of the air-sea fluxes, and the use of fine-scaled simulations using phased-resolved wave models.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1829093
• Report Number(s): ANL/EVS-21/8; 168741
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
42 ENGINEERING