Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
14
OFFSHORE RESOURCE
ASSESSMENT
A growing share of the world's wind energy development is now occurring offshore,
in both lakes and oceans. In part, this is because many offshore areas have a good wind
resource. Even more important, they offer opportunities for large-scale development
that may not otherwise be available near densely populated and protected coastal
areas. This point helps explain why most of the world's offshore wind projects have
been built or are being planned in Western Europe, where the population density is
high and there is relatively little land available for large wind projects. To date, most
offshore wind projects have been built less than 25 km from the shore in water of less
than 40 m depth. With improvements in turbine foundation technologies (including
floating platforms) and installation practices, projects in the future may be sited farther
from shore and in deeper waters.
Wherever offshore projects are sited, their success, like that of onshore projects,
depends on sound wind resource assessment. Many of the basic principles and guide-
lines of resource assessment covered in this topic apply equally offshore. For the most
part, the instruments and parameters measured are the same, as are the methods used
to collect and QC the data, characterize the resource, project the measurements to
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