Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Local environmental, soil, and marine traffic conditions vary greatly
throughout U.S. coastal waters. The variations affect loads that control
tower, foundation, and turbine designs; installation conditions such as
local sea swells; pile-driving requirements; and a variety of other factors.
Expertise with conditions in one location may not be directly applicable
to other locations. In some cases, knowledge unique to a particular loca-
tion (e.g., seismic effects offshore California) may be required. The
expertise of the CVA should be considered in relation to the location of
the project to determine whether that expertise is applicable to local
requirements.
Finally, in the committee's opinion, a CVA should have a quality assur-
ance plan that addresses the processes used in the CVA activities and the
record-keeping ability necessary to track the project adequately and doc-
ument results. Such plans may, but are not required to, adhere to Inter-
national Organization for Standardization or other standards for quality
assurance, but they should be maintained in such a way that a compliance
audit could be conducted and passed. Adherence to such a plan helps
ensure that data are properly tracked (e.g., nondestructive evaluation test
reports and project interim reports) and that the CVA activities capture
all necessary aspects of the project.
FILLING THE EXPERIENCE GAP
To date, no large-scale offshore wind turbine projects have been designed
for or installed in U.S. waters. As described in Chapter 3, while a number
of projects have been installed in European countries, the local design
conditions (e.g., hurricanes) expected for U.S. facilities have not been
addressed in detail, and potential fabrication and installation obstacles
have not been encountered. Thus, there is a potential gap in experience
that will affect the ability of a CVA to review the activities of designers,
fabricators, and installers effectively, because the CVA will be learning
side-by-side with the principal participants in the projects.
Experience in regulating the offshore wind industry is lacking.
BOEMRE has a long history of regulating the U.S. offshore oil and gas
industry, and its familiarity with operators, designers, fabricators, and
installation contractors is invaluable in evaluating the expertise and
qualifications of potential CVAs. This familiarity does not exist for the
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