Workshop on Research Needs for Offshore Wind Resource Characterization: Summary Report
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office convened “Research Needs for Offshore Wind Resource Characterization,” a workshop in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 5–6, 2019. Wind resource characterization includes meteorological information to estimate annual energy production, forecasts to ensure economical and reliable wind energy integration, and turbulence characterization for developing and applying design load criteria. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together representatives from the offshore wind industry and marine environmental research community to share views on meteorological and oceanographic information needed to successfully develop offshore wind projects in the United States. It was also intended to identify current industry knowledge gaps that can be effectively addressed by researchers with current and emerging observational and modeling tools. The workshop was in response to one of the key challenges articulated in the National Offshore Wind Strategy: reducing costs and technology risks through improved offshore wind power resource and site characterization. The strategy noted that “a better understanding of the unique meteorological, ocean, and seafloor conditions across U.S. offshore wind development sites will allow for optimized designs, reduced capital costs, greater safety, and less uncertainty in preconstruction energy estimates, resulting in reduced financing costs.” The workshop built on the National Offshore Wind Strategy, as well as previous workshops and reports that have informed this research area, providing the basis for future investment in offshore resource characterization research. The 1.5-day workshop involved 55 participants with comparable numbers of representatives from industry, academia, national laboratories, and federal agencies. The meeting included a small number of participants from Europe. The structure was to seed discussions with presentations by national and international leaders in their respective disciplines, followed by discussion among all participants. Discussion began with current industry needs and gaps for metocean information from the European perspective as well as considering unique aspects of the U.S. offshore environment. Those topics were followed by discussion of information needs specifically to address offshore wind system design requirements. These sessions provided the context for the third primary area of discussion, which was current capabilities and challenges for the research community in providing the needed information. This input will inform DOE, other state and federal agencies, research institutions, and industry stakeholders in making decisions about potential research and development (R&D) efforts supporting the development of offshore wind energy in the United States.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1776618
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-29276
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Research Needs for Offshore Wind Resource Characterization, Alexandria, VA (United States), 5-6 Mar 2019
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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