Norway-based energy data and intelligence provider, TGS, has added four more locations on the US East Coast to its multi-client offshore wind and metocean measurement campaign.
In addition to their floating LiDAR buoy in the New York Bight, TGS announced four further deployments, one offshore Massachusetts, two covering the impending Central Atlantic lease round, and another buoy in the New York Bight area to further enhance their existing data collection and wind modeling of this prime lease area, the company said.
In the Central Atlantic, the TGS-deployed floating LiDAR buoys will provide data and insights on a subscription basis to those pursuing wind development opportunities allowing the de-risking of prospects well before the lease bidding process which is due to open in early 2024.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) identified eight draft Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in four Central Atlantic states in November 2022.
The areas cover approximately 1.7 million acres and represent a subset of the 3.9 million acres of the Call Area that the Department of the Interior announced for public comment in April of 2022.
In the New York Bight, TGS’ first buoy in the region is performing very well with high data recovery rates and measuring unique aspects of the wind resource not previously captured by prior modeling studies or measurement campaigns, the company said.
Adding a second TGS floating LiDAR buoy could further reduce wind and ocean modeling uncertainties and cycle times for those embarking on on-site assessment activities, as well as validate TGS’ high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) model data coverage.
Similarly, those companies working on offshore wind development in Massachusetts can acquire additional data to de-risk Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) or enhance Construction and Operations Plans (COPs).
In all five deployments, TGS is utilising floating LiDAR systems with the highest level of accuracy (stage 3 validation) from the Spanish company EOLOS.
In addition to wind speed measurements, the data package includes critical metocean and environmental data such as wave heights, ocean current profiles, and acoustic monitoring of whales, dolphins, birds, and bats.
The data to be gathered by EOLOS’s floating LiDAR will be delivered via the Wind AXIOM platform which allows offshore wind developers and stakeholders to constrain the most influential factors affecting the viability of offshore wind projects, using wind models and measurements to answer questions related to energy output, annual revenue, supply fluctuations, and more, said TGS.