Evaluation of high-resolution reanalyses for wind energy application in the North Sea and Baltic Sea

The exploitation of offshore wind energy is an essential part of the German energy transition (Energiewende). The planning of new offshore wind farms demands detailed information on wind conditions at turbine hub heights in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. High-resolution reanalyses which are based on state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction (NWP) models combined with data assimilation systems offer the required meteorological data which are suitable for climatological assessment.The regional reanalysis COSMO-REA6 operated by Germany&#8217;s national meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) provides hourly data of 6 km horizontal resolution for 1995-2019/08 (Kaspar et al., 2020). Moreover, hourly data of 31 km horizontal resolution for 1950 to present are available from the global reanalysis ERA5 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). DWD delivers reanalysis data and statistical evaluation results to Bundesamt f&#252;r Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) in order to facilitate offshore site tenders. Data and a report were recently published as part of the tenders for 2021 (https://pinta.bsh.de/).Here we present an evaluation of the 100 m wind speed and direction from COSMO-REA6 and ERA5 based on a comprehensive statistical analysis. On the reference side the FINO measurements (Research platforms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, https://www.fino-offshore.de/en/index.html) from FINO1 and FINO2 are used. The FINO measurements are not used by the data assimilation schemes of the two reanalyses and therefore constitute independent reference data. The focus is on episodes prior to the installation of wind farms in the direct vicinity of the FINO platforms to avoid wake effects. The quality of the two reanalyses is compared to other state-of-the-art reanalyses and wind atlas data.Reference:Kaspar et al. (2020): Regional atmospheric reanalysis activities at Deutscher Wetterdienst: review of evaluation results and application examples with a focus on renewable energy, Adv. Sci. Res., 17, 115&#8211;128, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-17-115-2020.

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Assessing Extreme Environmental Loads on Offshore Structures in the North Sea from High-Resolution Ocean Currents, Waves and Wind Forecasting

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse9101052 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 1052

Author(s):

Nikolaos Skliris ◽

Robert Marsh ◽

Meric Srokosz ◽

Yevgeny Aksenov ◽

Stefanie Rynders ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Continental Shelf ◽

North Sea ◽

Offshore Structures ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Environmental Loads ◽

The North ◽

Shelf Slope ◽

Hourly Data ◽

The North Sea

The fast development of the offshore energy industry becomes an essential component of resilient economies in most of the countries around the North Sea, addressing an increasing demand for cost-efficient and environmentally safe energy sources. Offshore wind farms are planned to be installed further away from the coasts to ensure stronger and more stable wind resources in this region. Oil and gas extraction infrastructures are also planned to move into deeper areas of the continental shelf and continental shelf slopes to explore new fields. These deeper areas of the ocean are characterised by harsh environmental conditions: stronger winds, larger waves and strong shelf slope currents, inducing considerably larger loads on offshore structures. This study brings together operational physical oceanography and the mathematics of fluid-structure interactions to estimate the likelihood of extreme environmental loads on offshore structures in the North Sea. We use the state-of-the-art Met Office high resolution ocean forecasting system, which provides high-frequency data on ocean and tidal currents, wave heights and periods and winds at a ~7 km horizontal resolution grid, spanning the North–West European Shelf. The Morison equation framework is used to calculate environmental loads on various types of offshore structures that are typically employed by the offshore industries in the North Sea. We use hourly data for a 2-year period to analyse the spatio-temporal variability of mean and extreme hydrodynamic loads and derive the relative contributions of currents, waves and winds in the region. The results indicate that waves dominate extreme hydrodynamic forces on the shallow shelf, whereas the current contribution is important at the shelf break and in the English Channel.

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Mesoscale resolving high-resolution simulation of wind farms in COSMO-CLM 5

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7178 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Naveed Akhtar ◽

Burkhardt Rockel

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

North Sea ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Offshore Wind Farms ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea ◽

Local Meteorology ◽

The Impact

The rapid development of offshore wind farms has raised concerns about the local environment and ecosystem. Wind farms influence the local meteorology by extracting kinetic energy from the wind field and by generating a large wake. The North Sea is one of the main regions of the world where the growth of offshore wind farms is rapidly increasing. In this study, we analyze the impact of large-scale offshore wind farms in the North Sea on local meteorology using regional climate model COSMO-CLM. For this purpose, the parametrization for wind turbine driven by Fitch et al. (2012) and Blahak et al. (2010), previously implemented in COSMO-CLM v 4.8 at KU-Leuven (Chatterjee et al. 2016), has been implemented in the latest version 5 of COSMO-CLM. Here we present the first results of COSMO-CLM long-term simulations with and without wind farms using mesoscale resolving high-resolution horizontal atmospheric grid spacing (~ 2 km).

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Accessibility assessment for operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms in the North Sea

Wind Energy ◽

10.1002/we.2028 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 637-656 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Michele Martini ◽

Raúl Guanche ◽

Iñigo J. Losada ◽

César Vidal

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Offshore Wind Farms ◽

The North ◽

Operation And Maintenance ◽

The North Sea

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Windstorm risk assessment for offshore wind farms in the North Sea

Wind Energy ◽

10.1002/we.2351 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Paul Buchana ◽

Patrick E. McSharry

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

North Sea ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Offshore Wind Farms ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea

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Wind wake effects of large offshore wind farms, an underrated impact on the marine ecosystem?

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12932 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Corinna Schrum ◽

Naveed Akhtar ◽

Nils Christiansen ◽

Jeff Carpenter ◽

Ute Daewel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Boundary Layer ◽

North Sea ◽

Large Scale ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Offshore Wind Farms ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea ◽

Ocean Hydrodynamics

The North Sea is a world-wide hot-spot in offshore wind energy production and installed capacity is rapidly increasing. Current and potential future developments raise concerns about the implications for the environment and ecosystem. Offshore wind farms change the physical environment across scales in various ways, which have the potential to modify biogeochemical fluxes and ecosystem structure. The foundations of wind farms cause oceanic wakes and sediment fluxes into the water column. Oceanic wakes have spatial scales of about O(1km) and structure local ecosystems within and in the vicinity of wind farms. Spatially larger effects can be expected from wind deficits and atmospheric boundary layer turbulence arising from wind farms. Wind disturbances extend often over muliple tenths of kilometer and are detectable as large scale wind wakes. Moreover, boundary layer disturbances have the potential to change the local weather conditions and foster e.g. local cloud development. The atmospheric changes in turn changes ocean circulation and turbulence on the same large spatial scales and modulate ocean nutrient fluxes. The latter directly influences biological productivity and food web structure. These cascading effects from atmosphere to ocean hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry and foodwebs are likely underrated while assessing potential and risks of offshore wind.We present latest evidence for local to regional environmental impacts, with a focus on wind wakes and discuss results from observations, remote sensing and modelling.&#160; Using a suite of coupled atmosphere, ocean hydrodynamic and biogeochemistry models, we quantify the impact of large-scale offshore wind farms in the North Sea. The local and regional meteorological effects are studied using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM and the coupled ocean hydrodynamics-ecosystem model ECOSMO is used to study the consequent effects on ocean hydrodynamics and ocean productivity. Both models operate at a horizontal resolution of 2km.

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A Spatial Analysis of the Potentials for Offshore Wind Farm Locations in the North Sea Region: Challenges and Opportunities

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi9020096 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 96 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gusatu ◽

Yamu ◽

Zuidema ◽

Faaij

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

North Sea ◽

Water Depth ◽

Wind Farm ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Offshore Wind Farms ◽

The North ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

The North Sea

Over the last decade, the accelerated transition towards cleaner means of producing energy has been clearly prioritised by the European Union through large-scale planned deployment of wind farms in the North Sea. From a spatial planning perspective, this has not been a straight-forward process, due to substantial spatial conflicts with the traditional users of the sea, especially with fisheries and protected areas. In this article, we examine the availability of offshore space for wind farm deployment, from a transnational perspective, while taking into account different options for the management of the maritime area through four scenarios. We applied a mixed-method approach, combining expert knowledge and document analysis with the spatial visualisation of existing and future maritime spatial claims. Our calculations clearly indicate a low availability of suitable locations for offshore wind in the proximity of the shore and in shallow waters, even when considering its multi-use with fisheries and protected areas. However, the areas within 100 km from shore and with a water depth above –120 m attract greater opportunities for both single use (only offshore wind farms) and multi-use (mainly with fisheries), from an integrated planning perspective. On the other hand, the decrease of energy targets combined with sectoral planning result in clear limitations to suitable areas for offshore wind farms, indicating the necessity to consider areas with a water depth below –120 m and further than 100 km from shore. Therefore, despite the increased costs of maintenance and design adaptation, the multi-use of space can be a solution for more sustainable, stakeholder-engaged and cost-effective options in the energy deployment process. This paper identifies potential pathways, as well as challenges and opportunities for future offshore space management with the aim of achieving the 2050 renewable energy targets.

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The ecology of infrastructure decommissioning in the North Sea: what we need to know and how to achieve it

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsz143 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 77 (3) ◽

pp. 1109-1126 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

A M Fowler ◽

A -M Jørgensen ◽

J W P Coolen ◽

D O B Jones ◽

J C Svendsen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North Sea ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Complete Removal ◽

Offshore Wind ◽

Knowledge Gaps ◽

Joint Research ◽

Offshore Wind Farms ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea

AbstractAs decommissioning of oil and gas (O&G) installations intensifies in the North Sea, and worldwide, debate rages regarding the fate of these novel habitats and their associated biota—a debate that has important implications for future decommissioning of offshore wind farms (OWFs). Calls to relax complete removal requirements in some circumstances and allow part of an O&G installation to be left in the marine environment are increasing. Yet knowledge regarding the biological communities that develop on these structures and their ecological role in the North Sea is currently insufficient to inform such decommissioning decisions. To focus debate regarding decommissioning policy and guide ecological research, we review environmental policy objectives in the region, summarize existing knowledge regarding ecological aspects of decommissioning for both O&G and OWF installations, and identify approaches to address knowledge gaps through science–industry collaboration. We find that in some cases complete removal will conflict with other policies regarding protection and restoration of reefs, as well as the conservation of species within the region. Key ecological considerations that are rarely considered during decommissioning decisions are: (i) provision of reef habitat, (ii) productivity of offshore ecosystems, (iii) enhancement of biodiversity, (iv) protection of the seabed from trawling, and (v) enhancement of connectivity. Knowledge gaps within these areas will best be addressed using industry infrastructure and vessels for scientific investigations, re-analysis of historical data held by industry, scientific training of industry personnel, joint research funding opportunities, and trial decommissioning projects.

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