New report EPL published
The North Sea plays a key role in the transformation to meet the European offshore wind plans of 75 GW by 2030. In the Netherlands, the national government aims to develop an offshore wind portfolio of at least 11.5 GW by 2030 corresponding to the 40% of the current electricity consumption. In 2020, the strongest offshore wind deployment in Europe took place in The Netherlands with 1.493 GW [1].
The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy has agreed that TNO performs measurement campaigns in the North Sea from 2014 until 2030 at different locations, reviewed on annual basis. Currently, the locations of the measurements are Lichteiland Goeree platform (LEG), Europlatform (EPL) and Wintershall Noordzee B.V. platform K13a, under the project ’Wind op Zee’ 2021.
TNO is responsible for the entire life cycle during the measurements: from the installation plan at the platform to the purchase and selection of the instrumentation, analysis, reporting and dissemination of the data. This report refers to the analysis of the measurement campaign at EPL from 2016 to 2020.
The weather analysis indicates that the measured data captures the variability of the local and regional climate of the area, including past extreme weather events. Particularly, during the winter of 2019-2020 five extreme events occurred in the form of storms with strong winds. The LiDAR was capable to capture the storms measuring wind speeds above 35 m/s at heights above 200m.
The accuracy and high quality data obtained, render this dataset valuable for additional applications in the energy sector. In addition, accurate and long term meteorological measurements are crucial for the feasibility and valuation of the wind farm site and for the financial decision to ensure the profitability of the business plans.