Offshore wind developer US Wind has deployed a metocean buoy within the Maryland lease area to collect critical atmospheric, weather and marine life data to inform energy production and overall design of its project.
Ocean Tech Services (OTS) will provide turnkey data services from the system, which include construction, testing, deployment, and operations of the buoy and associated sensors.
The floating lidar buoy uses an eye-safe, continuous wave laser to measure wind speeds and direction across the turbine height.
These measurements, along with surface meteorology and ocean condition observations, will help inform US Wind’s energy production estimates and overall project design.
The buoy will also allow US Wind to collect an array of advanced environmental and wildlife data through sensors that enable the monitoring of bats, birds, fish, and other marine mammals to determine the presence, frequency, and distribution within the lease area. Subsets of the metocean observations will be posted publicly on US Wind’s website.
US Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski said: “The deployment of our metocean buoy is a critical milestone in our commitment to help meet Maryland’s renewable energy goals.
“The data collected will advance our understanding of wind and wildlife patterns in our lease area to inform the most environmentally responsible and efficient design, project layout, and turbine siting.”
Cleanly powered by solar panels and wind turbines, along with an onboard fuel cell and battery back-up system, the buoy will be deployed within the lease area for two years.
“Ocean Tech Services is excited to work with US Wind during the site assessment phase of the Maryland wind energy area development,” said Stephen O’Malley, president of Ocean Tech Services.
“As a locally-based service provider, OTS brings the experience, personnel and equipment required to successfully complete the offshore data collection campaign.”
The buoy deployment was staged out of Tradepoint Atlantic, located at Sparrows Point, in Maryland.
US Wind was awarded Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (ORECs) from the State of Maryland for the first phase of its MarWin project in 2017.
In total, the company’s lease area can support approximately 1.5GW of offshore wind energy capacity.